After graduating from college, Calhoun was hired by
General Electric (GE). He decided to join GE in part because he would be working in
Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, where he grew up. Calhoun left GE to join privately held global information services firm VNU as CEO in 2006. Under his leadership, the company rebranded itself as
Nielsen Holdings, returned to the public markets in 2011, and was added to the
S&P 500 Index in 2013. In 2014, Calhoun became executive chairman of Nielsen, and also joined
The Blackstone Group as a Senior Managing Director and head of Private Equity Portfolio Operations. He also became a member of Blackstone's management committee. At
Boeing, Calhoun was a director, starting in 2009, and was named lead independent director in 2018. At the same time, the board named Calhoun non-executive chairman. In March 2024, Boeing announced that Calhoun would be stepping down at the end of the year.
Public comments on accidents involving Boeing aircraft In a March 2020 interview with
The New York Times, Calhoun discussed the
737 MAX's
MCAS software, saying that Boeing had made a "fatal mistake" in expecting that pilots could immediately correct the software problems. He went on to explain that "pilots [in
Ethiopia and
Indonesia] don't have anywhere near the experience that they have here in the U.S." He unsuccessfully requested to go
off the record after being asked whether American pilots would have been able to control the situation, and then replied, "[f]orget it, you can guess the answer." On January 5, 2024, a door plug on a
Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines (
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282) blew out, causing an
uncontrolled decompression. The aircraft returned to Portland, Oregon, for an emergency landing. There were no fatalities. The
National Transportation Safety Board and the
FAA announced investigations. At a staff meeting on January 9, Calhoun acknowledged Boeing's responsibility. "We are gonna approach this—No. 1—acknowledging our mistake", he told employees. Calhoun added that he had been "shaken to the bone" by the accident.
No Aircraft to Compete with Airbus 321-NEO Boeing cancelled the New Midsize Airplane (NMA) in early 2020, and quashed any notion that it may develop an all-new airliner late in the 2020s, which meant Boeing had nothing to compete with Airbus and its A321s New Engine Option (NEO). Airlines responded by ordering Airbus A321-NEO in record numbers. There were over 1300 A321-NEO orders over the next twelve months after the Boeing announcement.
Boeing compensation In 2022, Calhoun received $22.5 million from Boeing. Most of his 2022 compensation was in the form of estimated value of stock and
option awards. He received the same $1.4 million salary as in 2021. Boeing announced in March 2023 that Calhoun would not receive a $7 million performance-based bonus, which had been tied to getting the new widebody
777X into service by the end of 2023. In February 2023, Boeing awarded Calhoun an incentive of about $5.29 million in restricted stock units to "induce him to stay throughout the company's recovery". In March 2023, Boeing announced Calhoun was being given shares worth $15 million that will vest in installments over three years. == Personal life ==