Boeing chief strategy officer to depart in 2024 as part of restructuring

By Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Marc Allen will step down as Boeing (NYSE:)’s chief strategy officer at the end of the year and leave the company in 2024 as the U.S. planemaker pares down its strategy arm.

In a letter to employees on Thursday, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said the U.S. planemaker will not fill the chief strategy officer role going forward.

Boeing will shrink its strategy and corporate development organization and instead have “strategy teams directly joining the business units they support,” Calhoun said.

“These teams provide critical counsel and insights – and they can have the most impact when working alongside those designing, building and sustaining our products.”

Chief Financial Officer Brian West and Mike D’Ambrose, the company’s top human resources official, will create a realignment plan for the strategy unit over the next month, Calhoun said.

Allen, who became Boeing’s top strategy official in 2020, intends to vacate the job at the end of the year and leave the company in the spring after serving in an advisory role.

Allen spearheaded efforts to acquire the planemaking arm of Brazil’s Embraer, which was called off during the market turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He also helped oversee a marathon trade spat with Airbus over subsidies.

Previous roles also included running Boeing’s China unit.

Allen “has provided exceptional leadership of this organization over the last three years, and we are confident now is the time for the transition,” Calhoun said.