Tim Keating, the former head of Boeing's government relations, sits in front of family members of those who died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in October 2019. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Tim Keating, Boeing’s longtime top lobbyist in Washington, has left the company, Defense One has learned.
In an email to the company’s government affairs employees, CEO David Calhoun said Marc Allen, Boeing’s chief strategy officer, would serve as the interim head of government relations while the company looks for a permanent replacement.
“In the meantime, I have great confidence in Marc’s ability to lead our world-class Government Operations team on the many important public policy matters and global engagement initiatives we are currently working on as a company ,” Calhoun wrote.
A Boeing spokesperson confirmed that Keating no longer works for the company, but declined further comment. Keating was not immediately reachable for comment. His company biography was removed from the Boeing website on Monday evening.
Boeing hired Keating—a former advisor to President Bill Clinton—in 2008, two months after it lost a $40 billion competition to build Air Force aerial refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and top rival Airbus. Boeing contested the contract and won a new competition in 2011 — but has since lost more than $5 billion on the project.
Some Boeing executives assumed Keating would leave the company in 2017 if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. Instead, Keating remained with Boeing and was frequently by the side of former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who formed a friendly relationship with President Donald Trump.
Keating accompanied Muilenberg on a December 2016 visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach and a January 2017 visit to Trump Tower in New York.
After criticizing the projected cost of a new Boeing-made Air Force One as President-elect, Trump proclaimed “God bless Boeing” at a Charleston, South Carolina, factory that builds the 787 Dreamliner. Keating was instrumental in the company’s expansion into South Carolina.
What Keating did to establish Boeing’s presence in South Carolina was a “masterful exercise in local politics,” a former colleague said.
In 2018, Trump visited a Boeing factory in St. Louis that builds F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets.
Keating remained by Muilenburg’s side as the CEO testified before Congress after two deadly 737 Max crashes. He remained with the company after Boeing fired Muilenburg in December 2019.
Investigations into the Max crashes showed the company had a culture that put profits over safety.