Boeing chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg, who was ousted from the company amid the crisis following the crashes of two 737 Max aircraft that killed 356 people, is leaving the company with $80 million in stock options and other assets.
In October, the board of Boeing announced Muilenburg was being stripped of his title as chairman of the company. In December, he stepped down as CEO after the board said “a change in leadership was necessary.”
The payout includes $29.4 million-worth of long-term compensation, shares of Boeing stock worth $4.3 million, and distributions from pension and deferred compensation worth $28.5 million. He also has the right to exercise stock options worth $24 million for which he would have to pay only $5.5 million.
Muilenburg is not being paid severance or separation payments in connection with his departure.
Last week Boeing released internal communications between Boeing employees concerning the development and certification of the 737 Max.
“Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft?” one employee wrote. “I wouldn’t.” Another email said, “This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”
Boeing argued that pilots who had been qualified to fly earlier versions of the 737 would not have to train on a simulator to transition to the 737 Max.
“I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required to transition,” one email from March 2017 said. “We’ll go face to face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement.”
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said the payout to Muilenburg was “corruption, plain and simple.”
Paul Njoroge, whose wife, mother-in-law, and three children were killed in the Max crash in Ethiopia, said it was, “Appalling that Boeing keeps shamelessly showing the world its culture of rewarding failures and clowns, as the latest documents it released reveal, instead of investing and rewarding safety.”
In an interview on Fox Business on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the grounding of the aircraft and hold on production could trim half a percentage point off U.S. GDP this year.
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