Boeing’s new Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kelly Ortberg, has made good on his promise to move to Seattle from West Palm Beach, Florida, instead of near the company’s Virginia headquarters. The
Promises kept
According to FOX 13, which obtained a copy of the warranty deed, found that it was indeed made out to the current Boeing CEO and his wife, Valerie. The home is in the Broadmoor neighborhood of Seattle, a gated community sandwiched between Washington Park Arboretum and Madison Park.
Photo: Thiago B Trevisan l Shutterstock
Ortberg took control of the company from former CEO Dave Calhoun, who was in charge during the 737 MAX fiasco and other disasters that have led to Boeing losing the trust and respect of the general public and airlines.
The four-bedroom home is 4,180 square feet and costs $4,212,580 after taxes. It was built in 1926 and is impressively 96 years old. The house also has five bathrooms, three fireplaces, and many patios—the entire lot measures 9,217 square feet.
The CEO’s move to live near the company’s design and manufacturing headquarters serves as an olive branch to fix the fractured relationship between the company’s management, engineering, and manufacturing teams, which haven’t seen eye to eye in decades. Many consider the move part of an effort to reduce the negative spotlight on the aircraft manufacturer in western Washington.
Boeing’s woes
Boeing is still one of the world’s foremost aerospace companies. However, the company has fallen on hard times recently. Its commercial aircraft division has especially struggled. The nexus event that caused Boeing’s troubles was its merger with McDonnell Douglas.
Photo: Around the World Photos/Shutterstock
The merger led to the erosion of the company’s culture, which put safety and engineering first and became one focused purely on profit. The result was the Boeing we know today, a company that cuts corners to make a profit.
This led to the crashes of two 737 MAX aircraft and other egregious safety lapses, which have led to various other issues with other passenger aircraft and even the Starliner space capsule, which recently returned to Earth without its two astronauts after numerous issues.
The road to recovery
Boeing’s headquarters has been in Crystal City, Virginia, since 2022, when it moved from Chicago. Earlier this year, a proposal to move the headquarters back to Seattle to reduce the lapses between the manufacturing and management divisions was made, but it was shut down.
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While the new CEO’s move proves his good intentions, it might be too little, too late, as the company stumbles. Its most recent troubles include a strike by nearly 33,000 workers on Thursday after 94.6% voted against a tentative deal. Furthermore, 96% of the company’s workers voted in favor of a strike.
The last time machinists had a fully negotiated contract was 16 years ago. The last significant strike at Boeing happened in 2008 when workers went on strike for nearly two months. The CEO pleaded with workers not to strike, saying, “[a strike] would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”
Although a timeline for the strike has not been provided, analysts claim that a 30-day strike can cost the company $1.5 billion.
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Boeing Workers Reject Deal And 96% Vote For Midnight Strike
In a disastrous result for Boeing on Thursday, around 33,000 of its employees rejected a four-year contract and will walk out at midnight. Workers in the Seattle and Oregon areas voted 94.6% against the tentative deal previously unveiled by Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).