David Neeleman
| David G. Neeleman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
David Gary Neeleman October 16, 1959 São Paulo, Brazil |
| Residence | New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Nationality |
Brazilian American |
| Occupation | CEO Azul Brazilian Airlines |
| Known for | Commercial airline entrepreneur |
| Children | 10 |
David G. Neeleman (born October 16, 1959) is a Brazilian American entrepreneur who has founded four commercial airlines, Morris Air, Westjet, JetBlue Airways and Azul Brazilian Airlines. He is also the co-owner of TAP Portugal, along with Humberto Pedrosa.
Neeleman was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and raised in Utah, to a family of Dutch and North American descent. He lived in Brazil until he was five.
He co-founded (with June Morris) Morris Air, a low-fare charter airline, and from 1984 to 1988, he was the executive vice president of the company. In 1988 Neeleman assumed the helm of Morris Air as its president. In 1993, when Morris Air was acquired by Southwest Airlines for $130 million (Neeleman received $25 million from the sale), he worked for 5 months on their Executive Planning Committee.
After leaving Southwest, Neeleman became the CEO of Open Skies, a touch screen airline reservation and check-in systems company, later acquired by HP in 1999. At the same time, he helped with another upstart airline, WestJet. JetBlue was incorporated in Delaware in August 1998 and officially founded in February 1999, under the name "NewAir" by Neeleman.
As the CEO of JetBlue Airways, his 2002 salary was $200,000 with a bonus of $90,000. Neeleman donated his entire salary to the JetBlue Crewmember Crisis Fund, which was established for JetBlue employees who had fallen on hard times.
On May 10, 2007, David Neeleman was replaced by David Barger (born 1959) as CEO of JetBlue and on May 21, 2008 he was replaced as chairman of the board by Joel Peterson.
...
Wikipedia