Boeing aerial flack
Lame-duck boss’ p.r. man helps find replacement
Former Hillary Clinton adviser Declan Kelly has been quietly helping troubled manufacturer Boeing as the company faces a slew of safety concerns, The Post has learned.
Kelly — who resigned from his consulting firm, Teneo, in 2021, after accusations of inappropriately touching six employees at a charity event — had been advising Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who has announced he will step down at the end of the year, on his communications strategy for the past two years, sources told The Post.
Now Kelly is working with the Boeing board of directors to find Calhoun’s replacement.
Some company insiders are baffled by that decision.
“The many major issues Boeing experienced since 2020 on Calhoun’s watch forced him to resign,” one source told The Post. “That the person who helped him in that role would help find his successor is madness.”
“Boeing already has trust issues — people are afraid to get on Boeing planes,” said another source who has known and worked with Kelly for years. “It’s the worst thing they could do.”
A former Kelly client, General Electric CEO Larry Culp, introduced him to Calhoun early in the latter’s tenure as CEO, a source with direct knowledge told The Post. The two began working on communication strategy for Calhoun, who tried to show transparency as CEO.
“We have a communications task with all of our customers,” Calhoun said earlier this year. “We’re going to approach this, No. 1, acknowledging our mistake. We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency.”
But that strategy wasn’t enough to salvage Calhoun’s rocky tenure — particularly after in January a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, forcing an emergency landing.
People close to Boeing say it is strange that Kelly would stick around after Calhoun’s effective ouster. But they note the decision happened around the same time that longtime Kelly client Steve Mollenkopf, who had served on Boeing’s board since 2020, was appointed as the board’s chair.
Boeing, Kelly and representatives for Culp did not respond to requests for comment.