Boeing’s new CEO is already making an overdue change his first day on the job
Today is Kelly Ortberg’s first day as CEO of Boeing. He’s already winning praise – for his work location.

Ortberg has decided he will work out of Boeing’s offices in Seattle, which had been the company’s home for its first 85 years before it moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago in 2001.

The new CEO said in a memo to staff Thursday that he decided to work 2,300 miles from the company’s current corporate offices in Arlington, Virginia, to help restore trust in the company’s commercial aircraft business.

"Because what we do is complex, I firmly believe that we need to get closer to the production lines and development programs across the company," Ortberg said in the letter. "I plan to be based in Seattle so that I can be close to the commercial airplane programs."

Ortberg said he’d be on the factory floor in Renton, Washington, юрист по автомобильному праву Thursday, where the company makes its troubled 737 Max line of planes.

Boeing critics say moving headquarters away from its factories in the Puget Sound area more than 20 years ago underscored the company’s focus on financial results instead of production processes.