Former Delta COO: American will remain a standalone carrier
Atlanta Business Chronicle by Chris Baysden, Web Editor - Triangle Business Journal
Date: Monday, February 6, 2012, 3:34pm EST

Related:Travel Enlarge Image American will remain a standalone carrier, said former Delta COO Jim Whitehurst.

He may be the CEO of Red Hat Red Hat Latest from The Business Journals Red Hat CEO Whitehurst learned his management skills early onNew Red Hat HQ to be called ‘Red Hat Tower’Hortonworks adds Cormier to board Follow this company , but Jim Whitehurst also knows a little bit about what American Airlines



American Airlines Latest from The Business Journals Former Delta COO:

American will remain a standalone carrierDelta traffic down slightly in JanuaryAmerican Airlines: No concrete plans yet for staffing at RDU Follow this company is facing these days. Before joining Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), Whitehurst was the chief operating officer at Delta Air Lines Inc.

Delta Air Lines Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Delta traffic slips in JanuaryDelta traffic down slightly in JanuaryDelta traffic down slightly in January Follow this company and charted an aggressive course for Delta to emerge out of bankruptcy.

Sitting atop one of the highest buildings in Raleigh, N.C., Whitehurst recalled his days at Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) but was appreciably animated when asked about how American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) would come out of its recent bankruptcy. Delta is reportedly among suitors vying to buy AMR.

“[B]I think there are very high odds that American is going to emerge, and it will highly likely emerge standalone,” Whitehurst said. “What they need to do is clean up their cost structure.”

He said less than 10 years ago, almost all the major airlines competing with American filed for bankruptcy to restructure themselves.




And another article with a funny ending:


Red Hat CEO Whitehurst learned his management skills early on
Triangle Business Journal by Sougata Mukherjee, Editor
Date: Monday, February 6, 2012, 3:00pm EST - Last Modified: Monday, February 6, 2012, 3:25pm EST
Enlarge Image Dathan Kazsuk
Red Hat CEO Whitehurst, left, speaks with TBJ Editor Sougata Mukherjee.


Sougata Mukherjee
Editor - Triangle Business Journal
Email Red Hat Red Hat Latest from The Business Journals Former Delta COO: American will remain a standalone carrier New Red Hat HQ to be called ‘Red Hat Tower’Hortonworks adds Cormier to board Follow this company CEO Jim Whitehurst knows how to control a crowd.

And that’s exactly what he did when he answered my questions at our annual Business Person of the Year dinner event on Feb. 3 at the Cardinal Club in Raleigh.

Unlike his predecessors Bob Young and Matthew Szulik, who were exceptional in preaching the value of open source, Whitehurst comes across as being more of a business development guy. The preaching of open source software is done. People get it.

Now, Whitehurst wants to monetize it.

When you are in charge of 85,000 people, as Whitehurst was as COO of Delta Airlines Delta Airlines Latest from The Business Journals Former Delta COO: American will remain a standalone carrierDelta mulls bid for US AirwaysUS Airways CEO confirms interest in American Airlines Follow this company (NYSE: DAL), and you are told the company needs to shed 40,000 jobs and change the way it does business, it’s an experience that sticks. Whitehurst discussed that, saying at one point: “You run a bankrupt company, it makes you humble.” And he was in the middle of all this — with the whole world watching — when he was just 35 years old.

Today he’s 44 but he is not far removed from his recent past. He knows how tough it is to make people work after telling them their colleagues don’t have a job. He acknowledges that being honest and shooting straight with workers came naturally to him. That, to me, was Whitehurst’s strongest moment of the night when he clearly separated himself from many other CEOs in corporate America.

Whitehurst has a sense of humor, too.

When I asked what the best use was for Red Hat’s (NYSE: RHT) $1 billion in cash, Whitehurst replied, “I was thinking massive executive bonuses.” Informed that his comments would soon be on TBJ’s web site, Whitehurst deadpanned, “That was a joke.”