Boeing has appointed to its board of directors former The Vanguard Group chief executive Tim Buckley, a move coming as the US airframer grapples with a cash crunch related to a weeks-long production pause that ended earlier this month.
Buckley, who oversaw nearly $10 trillion in assets as Vanguard’s CEO, will serve on the airframer’s finance committee as well as its governance and public policy committee, Boeing said on 15 November.
He worked as chief investment officer and chief information officer for Vanguard before becoming CEO and board chair of the Pennsylvania-headquartered investment firm in 2018. Buckley retired from the company’s top leadership position earlier this year.
Networking platform LinkedIn shows that Buckley joined the board of pharmaceutical firm Pfizer last month.
“Tim is a renowned, trusted leader who brings the voice of the investor and a track record of business success to our board,” says board chair Steve Mollenkopf. “Tim’s familiarity with the broad investor community, expertise managing complex business operations and ability to positively lead through change will bring additional important perspective.”
Buckley will be the 10th new member appointed to Boeing’s 12-seat board since 2019 “as part of the board’s refreshment efforts”.
The aerospace manufacturer is seeking financial and operational stability following a machinsts’ strike that forced the shut down of key aircraft production programmes, and a third quarter that saw it lose $6.4 billion.
Boeing delivered 14 jets last month despite the strike. But the company said it would lay off some 17,000 workers – about 10% of its workforce – as part of a broader plan by CEO Kelly Ortberg to focus on core aircraft production programmes.
The International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers’s strike lasted from 13 September to 4 November, a period during which Boeing faced a critical cash shortage.
In late October, Boeing announced that it would raise some $19 billion via a stock sale to support ”repayment of debt, additions to working capital, capital expenditures and funding and investments in the company’s subsidiaries”, it said at the time.
Key supplier Spirit AeroSystems is also struggling financially. The Wichita-based manufacturer recently secured from Boeing a loan of up to $350 million, after Spirit warned that an acute cash shortage is threatening its viability.
