It appears that the critical decisions on the Max design were made during Raymond Conner's tenure as head of Commercial Airplanes. He was a sales executive. His

It appears that the critical decisions on the Max design were made during Raymond Conner's tenure as head of Commercial Airplanes. He was a sales executive. His successor, Kevin McAllister was also a sales executive, and worse, was ex-GE. No doubt he was hired during James McNerney's stint as Boeing CEO. McNerney was also from GE under Jack Welch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Conner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Conner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_G._McAllister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_G._McAllister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNerney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNerney