In early September Jeff Smisek stepped down as United CEO, following the scandal involving the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Continue reading: United Names New Acting CEO
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I'm not an insensitive person, though, while sympathetic to a right to privacy, as a CEO whose health status could have a direct relationship to not only the functioning but the stock price of a public company, I think UAL has a legal obligation to be transparent in informing the public and its shareholders on Oscar Munoz' condition and prospects for returning to his job.
UAL aparently learned absolutely nothing by having a lawyer run it in to the ground (smisek) so why not have a "temporary" guy who is a lawyer continue the dismemberment of a once great brand. Best wishes to Oscar. I hope he makes it back to help all the pissed off United employees. Us 1K flyers have moved on already.
I'll echo what @JNorman just stated. Hopefully this Hart guy is just temporary as I think he is a very bad choice. Munoz had huge issues to address. Munoz was probably better able to tackle labor problems as he was a railroad guy and all the railroads are 100% organized. Hart is just another empty suit with a law degree. I feel sorry for United and its employees and customers. I just don't think this Hart guy is going to work out.
I loved Brett Hart back in the old WWF days.
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I agree with Stuart that UA owes it's shareholders more on his condition once they know it.
But, good God! What a heartless press release. Not even a throwaway line about "We hope he gets better soon" or "We're thinking of him in his time of recover"! Sheesh!
The last CEO before Oscar was also an attorney; not a wise move on UA's part...
Get well soon, Oscar.
We're not even sure that this new acting CEO won't also have a coronary after he fully takes in the magnitude of the mess that Smisek made of the airline that the new leadership has to clean up... 😉
I agree with Todd. Maybe they should just let the real Bret Hart have a crack at running this airline. I don't see how he could do any worse. http://www.brethart.com/
It's incredible, I really agree with almost all of the comments above. The company really got all Jeffed up, the ex-cons are up in arms, the old UAer's are pissed off, and their best customers left, me too.
My assessment; the company really lost its way under Jeff and the employees were all busy pointing the finger at each other meanwhile senior management was focused on returning shareholder value at the expense of customer experience, customer service, and their best flyers.
PT Barnum said it, "there's a sucker born every minute" and United's business model is dependent on getting as many as those people as possible to fill their cabins. That was the old Continental model for the back of the bus, but at least Continental treated their best flyers pretty well.
It's shocking to see Munsz go out with a coronary event, Fortune 100 CEOs have excellent health plans that catch this kind of slowly developing pathology. Maybe it was the realization of criminal liability and jail time that created the stressful environment for all the senior management who touched the third rail over at the port authority. I wish this guy a good recovery but it looks like he's out for the rest of the game this year and isn't coming back for the next season
United need to be far more transparent about what's going on. If Munoz wants privacy he can't be a CEO of a listed company. He's made certain promises that investors have made decisions on and they now need to know if he's going to be at the helm to deliver them.
Not sure Harts CV fills you with confidence that he is going to do a good job running a major Airline so it's important to know if this really is a temporary thing for a month or if it's longer term and he's going to have to make strategic decisions.
Oh yeah--this guy looks like he's really going to help UA...NOT!
Rock on brother.
I woke up to read that headline about Brett and thought "whaaaat?" I went to law school with Brett. Nice, smart guy, but clearly not a long-term airline CEO. This has to be a temporary, placeholder arrangement -- perhaps because he's familiar with this kind of turmoil, as when the Sara Lee CEO had a stroke during Brett's tenure there. As for all the folks who want to bash lawyer CEOs (and much of the criticism is warranted -- most lawyers can't manage their own law firms, much less public companies), consider that Richard Anderson of Delta is a lawyer. He went to a law school ranked 149 -- out of 149 -- by US News He's the bane of the frequent flier community, but he runs a better airline on a day-to-day basis than Jeffy ever did.