Boeing nominates first Europe-based board member

Reuters

Published Mar 02, 2023 10:10AM ET

Updated Mar 02, 2023 12:11PM ET

By Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) -Boeing Co has nominated the head of a Paris-headquartered utility company to become a new member of its board of directors, the first to be based in Europe, the company said on Thursday.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) shareholders will vote on the nomination of Sabrina Soussan, chief executive of water and waste management company Suez SA (OTC:SZSAY), at its annual meeting on April 18.

If elected, she will become the first board member based outside the United States and the eighth independent director to join the board since April 2019.

Soussan, who has German and French nationality, would sit on the board’s audit and finance committees, Boeing said.

Boeing’s board of directors has weathered several high-profile departures in the wake of the 737 MAX crisis, including those of U.S. Ambassadors Caroline Kennedy and Nikki Haley in January 2021 and March 2020, respectively.

As head of Suez, Soussan runs an emblematic French company that built the Suez Canal and went on to manage much of the country's water supply.

She became CEO of Suez in July 2022, about a year after the company was swallowed by rival Veolia following a rare and much-publicized hostile takeover bid in her native city of Paris.Boeing Chair Larry Kellner praised Sousson's "extensive engineering and senior leadership experience" in areas such as manufacturing, safety and sustainability.