Boeing names Ann Schmidt chief communications and brand officer

By Dan Catchpole

SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has tapped Ann Schmidt to be chief communications and brand officer in the latest executive appointment since Ortberg took over as chief executive in August.

He announced her appointment on Monday in a memo to employees viewed by Reuters. Schmidt has been the interim head of communications since her predecessor, Brian Besanceney, retired on Oct. 1.

In the past five years, several crises - two fatal crashes, safety and quality lapses, criminal investigations, financial losses and a seven-week-long strike - have tarnished the company's legacy.

In October, Ortberg told investment analysts that Boeing has lost its iconic status and needs a "fundamental culture change."

On Friday, he told employees in a memo that Chief Information Officer Susan Doniz had left the company. Dennis Eng is filling in as interim CIO.

Earlier this month, Boeing’s chief lobbyist, Ziad “Z” Ojakli, left the company. In September, the head of Boeing defense, space and security, Ted Colbert, left. The division's chief operating officer, Steve Parker, was named to temporarily head BDS.

Boeing's head of quality for commercial airplanes, Elizabeth Lund, is retiring this month. She was named in February to the new position of senior vice president of quality for its commercial planes, after the crisis sparked by the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout of a new Alaska Airlines, 737 MAX 9.

Lund will be replaced by Doug Ackerman, who has served as vice president of supply chain and fabrication quality and has been involved in the company's quality improvement plan.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Rod Nickel and Chris Reese)