Incoming Boeing CFO to be tasked with reducing debt

Dive Brief:

Embattled aircraft giant Boeing has hired Brian West, CFO of financial data company Refinitiv and a former finance of GE's aviation division, to be its CFO staring in August, the company announced.
West will succeed Greg Smith, who is set to retire this month after ten years in the role and more than 30 years at Boeing. Company Treasurer Dave Dohnalek will serve as interim CFO until West steps in.
As CFO, West will be tasked with investing in new research and development while also reducing Boeing’s debt, which, at the end of the first quarter, amounted to $63.6 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bulk of that came from last year’s $25 billion bond sale that Smith orchestrated as a pandemic survival tactic. Boeing reported $15.22 billion in first-quarter revenue, down $16.91 billion from the same quarter last year.

Dive Insight:

West has been the CFO of Refinitiv since 2018. Before that, he was CFO and executive vice president of operations at Oscar Health Insurance, and spent eight years as CFO-COO of ratings firm Nielsen Holdings NV.

West began his career with a 16-year stint at General Electric, where he worked with current Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, then the head of GE’s aviation business. West served as CFO of GE’s aviation and engine services business.

Calhoun recruited West to join Nielsen after he became the company's CEO 2006, the Journal said. The two have worked together, on and off, for almost two decades, said AutoZone CFO Jamere Jackson, who took over Nielsen’s finances when West was promoted to COO in 2014. “[West] is wicked smart.”

Boeing is coming off an unprecedented rough patch, fueled in part by its troubled 737 MAX jet program and compounded by the flight reductions at the height of the pandemic that slammed the industry.

Ken Herbert, a managing director at financial services firm Canaccord Genuity Group, told the Journal Boeing’s capital structure and portfolio are littered with issues. In his new role, Herbert said, West should focus on “reducing interest payments and growing free cash flow to generate funds for the development of new aircrafts.”

The recent spike in air travel could bring a boost to Boeing’s free cash flow; earlier this week, United Airlines shared plans to purchase 200 737 MAX jets from Boeing.

“Brian is the ideal executive to serve as Boeing’s next CFO given his significant financial management and long-term strategic planning experience in complex global organizations across the aerospace, manufacturing and services industries,” Calhoun said in a statement.

Smith, the outgoing CFO, was only recently appointed to oversee a group the company formed earlier this year to help it get its production and supply chain operations back into competitive mode after years of turmoil.