Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto/Getty Images
- Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has resigned and is set to leave at the end of the year.
- Calhoun is likely to exit with a multi-million-dollar payout.
- Dennis Muilenburg, his predecessor, left in 2019 with $80 million – but no severance.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced his resignation on Monday. He's not the first leader of the company to leave amid recent safety concerns — and he's likely to do so with a big payout.
Calhoun attributed his plans to leave to age, telling CNBC in a Monday interview that the decision was "100%" his alone. He's departing just as the aviation company faces intense scrutiny after a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5, in turn prompting investigations from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Justice, and the National Transportation Safety Board.
"I've entered my fifth year," Calhoun told CNBC, referring to his time at Boeing. "At the end of this year, I'll be close to 68 years old."
Calhoun will likely exit with a big paycheck. He was paid a base salary of $1.4 million in 2022, according to an April regulatory filing. Calhoun lost out on a $7 million bonus in the same year because he missed one of his goals — he couldn't get Boeing's new 777X aircraft into service by the end of 2023 — but he still made $22.5 million in 2022.
How much Calhoun will get after his exit from Boeing will depend on how the aircraft maker's stock price moves. This is because he holds nearly 70,000 Boeing shares outright, more than 25,000 phantom shares, and another 175,000 options, Ben Silverman, vice president of research at financial software company VerityData, told Fortune on Monday.
Most of Calhoun's stock and options vest and expire in the future. Based on the current stock price, Calhoun could rake in $19.2 million in payouts over 10 years from just two tranches of shares after he exits the company, Silverman's analysis shows, per Fortune.
A Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider the company will outline details of Calhoun's compensation in company filings over the "coming weeks."
As a guide, Dennis Muilenburg, Calhoun's predecessor — who was fired in 2019 after two Max 8 crashes killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019 — walked away with a payout worth $80 million – but no severance. He left as 2,800 employees were laid off after the disasters, sparking anger about his compensation.
Boeing shares rose 1.4% to close $191.41 apiece on Monday and extended gains by 0.2% in after-hours trade. The stock is down 27% so far this year.