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United Airlines (UAL) CEO Scott Kirby is feeling pretty good about the new CEO at Boeing (BA).
Kirby wrote on LinkedIn that he and Kelly Ortberg had lunch, and that it went well because Kirby “came away with a renewed confidence that Boeing (BA) is on the right path and will recover faster than most expect.”
More specifically, Kirby said of Ortberg: “His engineering background at Rockwell Collins, combined with an instinct to be close to his frontline teams in Seattle, makes for a winning combination. It was clear from our discussion that he’s 100% engaged, understands the cultural changes needed to turn things around and is committed to listening to his employees and customers.”
Not long ago, before former Boeing chief Dave Calhoun stepped down amid the 737 Max 9 door plug blowout scandal that has thrown a wrench into the planemaker’s plans for the year, Kirby was publicly calling for a new competitor to step up and challenge Boeing’s U.S. supremacy in the industry. But maybe that desire is now in the past.
“Boeing’s 170,000+ employees have the expertise, drive, and commitment to get the company back to being one of the best and most important brands in the world,” Kirby wrote in the post. “And Kelly is the right leader to take them there.”