By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
The Boeing Co.’s top commercial jet salesman will retire in April, the company announced Tuesday.
Seddik Belyamani, 59, is leaving after 28 years with Boeing. He had been executive vice president for commercial airplane sales since 1998.
Belyamani will be replaced by Toby Bright, who is now vice president for business strategy and marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Bright, in turn, will be replaced by Nicole Piasecki, the vice president in charge of sales to leasing companies.
Belyamani leaves as the company enters what is likely to be a poor sales year. Belyamani’s Airbus counterpart, John Leahy, last week predicted orders will be down about 60 percent for the two commercial jet builders this year as a result of the post-Sept. 11 crisis in the airline industry.
Belyamani was in charge of the Boeing effort to sell a remarkable 608 jets in 2000, including 117 orders for 777s. This was a marked turn-around from 1999, when Boeing took 382 orders and was outsold by Airbus for the first time.
But this past year, sales slumped along with the U.S. economy. Boeing has not released year-end order totals, but it appears likely they will fall short of its goal of 400 for 2001.
Belyamani was well-regarded and a strong leader of Boeing’s sales efforts, said Bob Toomey, an analyst with RBC Dain Rauscher in Seattle.
But Boeing’s strength and depth in its senior management will mitigate the loss of Belyamani’s talents, Toomey said. "In terms of their long-term fortunes, I don’t think we as analysts focused on him as the key."
And with sales likely to be down, now is a good time for the transition to a new sales leader, he said.
Belyamani joined Boeing in 1974 from Eastern Airlines. A native of Morocco, he was knighted by the king of that country in 2000.
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