While they pressured the engineers for savings, Boeing enriched shareholders, spending $41.5 billion on stock buybacks from 2013 to 2018—enough capital to develop several all-new aircraft, had they chosen to. Almost 80 percent of the free cash during that period went to buybacks. McNerney himself made $231 million from 2001 to 2016, with a retirement package that wasn’t Welch-sized but in the neighborhood: at least $58.5 million. For his part, Muilenburg made $106 million from 2011 to 2018.
