New Boeing CEO says his focus is on restoring trust

New Boeing chief Kelly Ortberg took the helm of the embattled aerospace giant on Thursday, and began his first day on the job with a message to employees.

In the memo shared with FOX Business, Ortberg told the workers “we clearly have a lot of work to do in restoring trust,” and laid out his vision for doing so.

Ortberg vowed to stay close to the production lines and to be transparent, while emphasizing the need for the company to meet its commitments and for its 170,000-person-strong team to work collaboratively.

“Because what we do is complex, I firmly believe that we need to get closer to the production lines and development programs across the company,” he wrote in the letter. “In fact, I’ll be on the factory floor in Renton today, talking with employees and learning about challenges we need to overcome.”

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Ortberg, 64, replaced former CEO Dave Calhoun, and is also Boeing’s new president and a member of the board.

Ortberg’s extensive to-do list includes mending relationships with airlines and employees, boosting output, repairing company finances and securing a labor deal to avoid a possible worker strike this year.

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The former Rockwell Collins boss said he plans to be based in Seattle to be close to Boeing’s commercial airplane programs, such as the 737 Max whose production has slowed following a Jan. 5 midair panel blowout on a near-new model. 

“Restoring trust starts with meeting our commitments – whether that’s building high quality, safe commercial aircraft, delivering on defense and space products that allow our customers to meet their mission, or servicing our products to keep our customers running 24/7,” he wrote.

“People’s lives depend on what we do every day, and we must keep that top of mind with every decision we make.”

Reuters contributed to this report.