Southwest Airlines

Introduction

My name is Gary Kelly and I am Chairman, President and CEO of Southwest Airlines. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Texas where I majored in accounting, a field I chose solely because my father was an accountant but later grew to enjoy it. I became a CPA and began my career with Southwest Airlines in 1986 as a controller which is a role in the financial side of business. Over the past 25 years, I have worked my way up the ranks at Southwest, becoming CFO and V.P. Finance just three years after joining the company, then was promoted to Executive Vice President and CFO in 2001, named CEO and Vice Chairman in 2004; and in 2008 at the age of 53, I was deemed CEO, President and Chairman of Southwest Airlines.

Abilities, traits, and experiences

Southwest Airlines is the largest airline carrier in the US and carries 25% of the country’s airline passengers. Southwest has been profitable for the past 40 years straight, without resorting to layoffs or pay-cuts, and unlike every other major airline, has never filed for bankruptcy despite the challenges the airline industry has faced in the past decade. Following in my predecessor, Herb Kelleher’s footsteps, I consider all 46,000 Southwest employees my corporate family and believe that when our employees are happy they will make our customers happy, and that will translate into profits and keeping our investors happy as well.

I moved up the corporate ladder under the wings of great mentors like Herb Kelleher, and I like to pay it forward by mentoring young officers joining Southwest and feel invested in their success and growth. Management is about interdependence, about orchestrating talent. (Hill, p.123) I value and constantly seek input from my executive officers which becomes increasingly important with the continuining challenges, particularly of rising fuel costs that the airline

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