Boeing’s Pope makes mark at aviation show as CEO search heats up

The top internal candidate to become Boeing Co.’s next chief executive officer made the rounds at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, raising her profile at the embattled planemaker as its board weighs a pivotal leadership decision. Stephanie Pope, who runs Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, was the company’s senior-most official in attendance at the trade expo, meeting with customers as she builds the case that she belongs on aviation’s biggest stage. Outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun, who has said he’ll step down by year-end as Boeing reels from crisis, wasn’t present, making Pope the standard bearer and public face of the company. “Leadership is all about meeting the moment,” Pope told reporters on Sunday, her first press event as chief of Boeing’s commercial business. Little is known of Boeing’s selection process, which is heating up and is overseen by Chairman Steve Mollenknopf — also a newcomer to his post. The job comes with significant challenges: whoever takes over must stem the financial bleeding, rebuild trust with the flying public and with regulators, and rally a dispirited workforce after Boeing lurched from one crisis to the next in recent years. At the same time, a successful turnaround would help any CEO burnish their credentials by pulling one of the most iconic US manufacturers from the brink and restoring Boeing’s standing alongside Airbus SE in the global plane making duopoly. Pope, 52, has spent months in Seattle, working to stabilize the planemaker’s factory operations. A mid-flight blowout of a fuselage panel in January threw the company into crisis and triggered a cascade of scrutiny by customers and regulators over manufacturing quality. <br/>