Boeing chairman Dennis Muilenburg has named Kevin McAllister president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, succeeding company vice chairman Ray Conner in the role.

Muilenburg also appointed Stanley Deal president and chief executive of Boeing Global Services, a new business unit to be formed from the customer services groups within the company’s existing commercial airplanes and defence, space and security business units.

McAllister joins Boeing from GE Aviation.

Deal is a veteran Boeing executive.

Conner, 61, will continue to serve as Boeing vice chairman through 2017.

He will work closely with McAllister in the months ahead on a purposeful hand-off of customer, supplier, and community and government relationships, and to ensure continuity of operations and customer support.

Conner also will provide strategic oversight and guidance for the company’s transition to a single integrated services business and remain involved in on-going product development strategy at Commercial Airplanes.

“With Ray Conner’s retirement timeline in sight and an expanding global services market to pursue, these moves will further strengthen and grow Boeing and better serve our customers, employees, shareholders and other partners in the years ahead,” said Muilenburg.

“We are immensely grateful to Ray for his leadership and contributions to Boeing over nearly four decades, and we will continue to rely on his vast experience and keen insights in supporting the leadership and business transitions underway.”

McAllister, 53, joins Boeing after 27 years with GE Aviation, where he served since 2014 as president and chief executive of GE Aviation Services.

Before that, as vice president and general manager of global sales and marketing since 2008, he was credited with delivering record backlog growth for the nearly $25 billion GE business.

“Kevin is one of industry’s best and most highly regarded senior executives, and we are thrilled to have him join Boeing and our strong Commercial Airplanes team,” Muilenburg said.

“He’s a passionate leader with decades of commercial aviation knowledge and experience.

“He knows Boeing well, shares our values and commitment to our people, and has the results-oriented operational and business experience needed to lead this vital and growing part of our company.”

Deal, 52, brings three decades of broad aerospace experience to his new leadership role.
Since 2014 he has served as senior vice president of Boeing’s Commercial Aviation Services business, delivering consecutive years of record performance.

Deal will begin immediately finalising and executing detailed and deliberate plans to structure and organise the new business while ensuring all near-term customer commitments are met and value is maximized over the long term.