Boeing's top communications official to retire as 737 MAX crisis drags on

Boeing’s head of corporate communications, Anne Toulouse, elected to step down from her role and would retire next year, the world’s largest planemaker said on Friday. Toulouse, a 30-year Boeing veteran, is the second high-ranking female communications leader to leave the embattled US planemaker as it fights to rebuild trust with airline customers and the flying public after two recent crashes of its 737 MAX killed 346 people in the span of five months. Boeing said it would name her successor in the near future. “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,” Toulouse said. “As we look ahead, I am confident the hard lessons learned will make Boeing better and that we will deliver on our important commitments... As we move into that next phase, I can best serve the company by turning over the role to someone with fresh perspective and, therefore, made the difficult decision to retire.” It was not clear whether Toulouse’s departure was the result of repeated criticism Boeing has faced over its public responses to the crashes. Some airline customers, corporate crisis experts, and victims’ family members criticised the company’s public comments as stilted and contradictory and appeared driven by company lawyers.<br/>