Company Says Finding His Replacement Will Be "Challenging"
Bombardier said Wednesday that Gary Scott, its
commercial-aviation division president, will retire Oct. 1, a
decision made for personal reasons unrelated to the highly
anticipated CSeries mainline aircraft. Guy Hachey, president and
chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, will serve as
interim head until a replacement is named, the Montreal-based
transportation giant said in a statement.
Photo Courtesy Bombardier
Scott (pictured), a longtime Boeing executive who led the
737/757 commercial- aviation division, joined Bombardier in 2004 to
run its newly created commercial-aviation program and spearheaded
the development of the all-new design CSeries single-aisle jet. The
plane, seating 110-130 passengers, uses a new design largely of
composite carbon fiber and promises lower maintenance costs and
better fuel efficiency than other aircraft in its niche. "The
CSeries aircraft program is tracking well, and with the program at
this advanced stage, I feel very comfortable leaving it in the
capable hands of my colleagues so I can devote more time to my
family," Scott, 61, said in a statement.
Bombardier is betting its future in commercial aerospace on the
CSeries, which makes its market debut in late 2013 and has forced
Boeing and European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.'s Airbus to
rethink their narrow-body aircraft workhorses. "He really is the
face of the CSeries and it's been his baby," said Scott Rattee, a
transportation analyst at Stonecap Securities Inc., an independent
securities firm. "You don't want to lose someone who has had such
an impact on such an important aerospace program, particularly
since he's so personally invested in the program. But, I do get the
sense that he thinks the program is genuinely in very good shape,"
Rattee said. "The major decisions are in the can. At this point in
time, it's a blocking-and-tackling, execution-type process. Having
said that, replacing someone of his level of experience and
recognition within the industry is going to be a very large
challenge for Bombardier," he said.
Bombardier wasn't immediately available to comment if Scott
might return in the future on a consulting basis. The company,
which reports its quarterly results next week, didn't provide a
time frame for naming a replacement.
Last week, Bombardier signed its ninth CSeries customer,
Ilyushin Finance Corp. (IFC), a Russian aviation leasing
company.
"There's no doubt in my mind we have a winner," Scott said in an
interview last year from China, where the CSeries fuselage will be
built. "This is truly a game-changing airplane, and it's really the
reason I came to Bombardier because I knew and understood this
market, and the need for a CSeries-like program. I also knew this
was critically important to Bombardier to take them to the next
level in their commercial aircraft business. This was not unlike
when Boeing launched into the 747 program in the late 1960s," he
said.