Boeing board members take heat for role in 737 MAX crisis

Two influential proxy advisers are recommending Boeing shareholders vote against key board members to protest the plane maker’s handling of the 737 MAX debacle. Ahead of Boeing’s annual shareholder meeting Monday, one of the proxy firms, Glass Lewis, has recommended voting against Chairman Larry Kellner, a former airline executive who previously oversaw the board’s audit committee. “We believe the audit committee failed to mitigate the risk posed by management’s decisions and should be held accountable for its oversight,” Glass Lewis wrote. Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, recommended shareholders vote against four longtime board members who served during the 737 MAX’s development and rollout, including Edmund Giambastiani Jr., a retired Navy admiral who heads a safety committee Boeing formed in the wake of the twin MAX crashes. Board members either didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined to comment. A Boeing spokesman said the company continues to learn from the MAX accidents and is taking extensive actions to rebuild trust. ISS also recommended voting against directors Arthur Collins Jr., Susan Schwab and Ronald Williams. ISS said Boeing’s “board can neither disclaim responsibility for the priorities that were set nor escape accountability by pleading ignorance of problems that were a foreseeable result of those priorities.”<br/>