Boeing’s senior vice president of communications, Anne Toulouse, will be retiring from her post in 2020, the Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer says in a statement on 22 November.
Boeing’s senior vice president of communications, Anne Toulouse, will be retiring from her post in 2020, the Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer says in a statement on 22 November.
“Anne has been an outstanding leader and committed contributor to Boeing over her entire career,” says chief executive Denis Muilenburg. “Above all, I also want to thank her for her tireless efforts as we worked through the challenges of the past year.”
Boeing has been struggling after the fallout following two fatal accidents of the company’s new-generation 737 Max aircraft in October 2018 and March 2019. The accidents led to the global grounding of the aircraft, which had been one of the most promising members of its commercial aircraft family.
The planemaker has repeatedly said it expects the Federal Aviation Administration to certificate the aircraft again in the fourth quarter, but the US regulator has been adamant about not placing a timeline on the plane’s re-entry to service. Most airlines which operate the Max have taken it out of their schedules until sometime in the first quarter 2020.
Toulouse belongs to the company’s old guard, with more than 30 years’ experience at the company in various media relations, branding, marketing, sponsorship, and advertising roles. She became interim senior vice president of communications, reporting to Boeing’s president and CEO, in September 2018. She served on the company’s Executive Council and took over the permanent communications role in February 2019. Boeing says it expects to name a successor in the near future.
“Over the course of my Boeing career I have been fortunate to know and work with some of the most talented, principled, and impressive people anywhere,” Toulouse says. “This past year has been all-consuming and profoundly difficult for all of us at Boeing – albeit nowhere close to the experience of the families affected by the Max accidents. As we look ahead, I am confident the hard lessons learned will make Boeing better and that we will deliver on our important commitments.”
Toulouse is the second top executive to step down as Boeing works through its Max crisis. Kevin McAllister, Boeing’s commercial aircraft chief since 2016, left the company in October. He was replaced by longtime Boeing insider Stan Deal, the former chief executive of Boeing Global Services.
