Top choice takes on Boeing job

United States aerospace and defence giant Boeing ended its search for a new chief executive yesterday by persuading its preferred candidate to take on the job, three months after he turned down what is regarded as one of the toughest assignments in corporate America.

Jim McNerney, the chief executive of the US conglomerate 3M, will have the task of restoring Boeing's morale - after a string of ethics scandals which claimed the scalps of its two previous chief executives - and regaining its lead in the civil aircraft market over Airbus.

McNerney, who was already a non-executive director of Boeing, said he had had a "late change of heart" after rejecting the overtures of the company's chairman, Lew Platt, in April. He added that it had been a "difficult decision" because of the "great tug" to stay at 3M.

He moved to 3M in 2001 after losing out in the race to succeed Jack Welch as chairman and chief executive of General Electric, and was the first candidate approached by Boeing after its previous chief executive, Harry Stonecipher, was ousted for having an affair with a senior colleague.

Stonecipher's predecessor, Phil Condit, was forced to quit in 2003 over an earlier ethics scandal involving the hiring of a former Pentagon procurement official.

The decision to appoint an outsider will come as a blow to the two highly rated internal candidates at Boeing - Alan Mulally, the head of its commercial aircraft division, and Jim Albaugh, who runs its defence business. But Platt said both men had expressed their "personal commitment" to the company and its new chief executive.

McNerney's appointment means two of the world's biggest aerospace companies have filled their top jobs in quick succession.

Last week, EADS appointed Noel Forgeard and Thomas Enders as its new joint chief executives after a stand-off between its French and German shareholders.

McNerney said acquisitions would be low on his list of priorities.

- INDEPENDENT