UTC CEO Louis Chenevert Steps Down, Gregory Hayes To Succeed

United Technologies has announced Tuesday that Chief Executive Officer Louis Chenevert has stepped down and will be succeeded by Gregory Hayes, who has been serving as the company's chief financial officer.

The decision comes as a surprise as the company struggles to boost growth in several key units, Bloomberg reported.

The announcement comes ahead of a Dec 11 investor meeting even as United Technologies prepares a major new engine program in its Pratt & Whitney division and faces challenges to expand its Otis elevator business in China.

Although the company didn’t give a reason for the change it is assumed that the announcement comes after the company’s Pratt & Whitney unit suffered some setbacks earlier this year involving its geared turbofan engine. Fires broke out in the power plants of a Bombardier. CSeries test plane and Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, grounding the planes.

“We were aware of Mr. Chenevert’s retirement, we congratulate him on this next step and of course we look forward to working with Mr. Hayes as his replacement,” Bombardier spokeswoman Marinella Delabarrera was quoted by Financial Post as saying.

“It has absolutely no impact on us. It’s business as usual for the CSeries aircraft program and we don’t see any impact to our relationship with Pratt or UTC,” she added.