Dennis Muilenburg Out : 737 Max Fallout

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg , who has been criticized for his handling of the 737 max crisis, has resigned . Chairman David Calhoun will take over as CEO and president, effective January 13, 2020. The Boeing shares rose nearly 4% in early trade in US Stock exchanges .

The 737 MAX grounding was the biggest crisis of Dennis Muilenburg’s 34 years tenure at company. The MAX was grounded worldwide in March after the second of two crashes , killing of combined total 346 people. Boeing had hoped to get the plane flying this year but announced last week that it would temporarily halt MAX production next month.

The announcement also come one day after Boeing’s Starliner capsule landed in New Mexico following a difficult flight that saw mission mangers scrambling to save the unnamed spacecraft .

Last week American Airlines removed the Max from its schedule until at least April 7. Southwest and United , the other two primary U.S. operators of the Max , currently have the plane scheduled to return in March but are expected to follow American in pushing that date back.

Dennis Muilenburg, 55, became CEO of the World’s largest aerospace company Boeing in July 2015. He previously held the chairman role as well but relinquished that seat in October. He has worked at Boeing in a number of different roles since 1985.

(With inputs USAToday and Reuters )