Southwest Airlines Co.

07/25/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/25/2024 09:05

Organizational Announcements to Drive Progress on Strategic Initiatives

Southwest Airlines announced several initiatives designed to drive progress on its plan, including the following organizational moves.

Ryan Greenmoves to Executive Vice President Commercial Transformation.

With the latest decisions on cabin monetization projects like assigned seating and premium seating, plus other commercial initiatives we'll unveil at Investor Day on Sept. 26, Green will dedicate himself to leading all aspects of these important and transformative initiatives. Changing from an open seating model to an assigned one will be a complex and transformational change that cuts across almost all aspects of the Company. This new role will report to President, Chief Executive Officer, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors Bob Jordan to drive next steps and progress on design and delivery. Since this work is critical and requires a full-time focus, Ryan will step out of his day-to-day role leading the Commercial organization and Senior Vice President & Chief Customer Officer Tony Roach will begin reporting to Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson.

Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer

The carrier created a new position, Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer, to focus on Southwest's core business and day-to-day revenue production, which aligns with the Company's transparency about the need for more resources to support revenue efforts. Reporting to Watterson, the additional Leadership support will focus on adapting to the increased sophistication of a new revenue management platform and tools and changing Customer booking patterns.

Three functions will now align under this Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer:

  • Vice President Pricing, a new role created to focus on the complex world of airline pricing, will be tasked with evolving the Company's pricing capabilities moving forward. This new role will report to the Chief Revenue Officer and lead the Pricing Department.
  • Southwest Business, led by a Vice President Sales. The selected Leader and the Southwest Business Department will also report to the new Chief Revenue Officer.

As a result of these business-driven organizational moves:

  • Jonathan Clarkson is promoted to Vice President &Chief Product Officer. As part of Southwest's increased investment in product development to drive new revenue streams, Clarkson's Teams will support revenue growth by maturing and developing the Company's loyalty program and revenue initiatives pipeline. Clarkson and his Team will manage Southwest's day-to-day seating evolution working in partnership with Green.
  • As Jones' focus changes, Lu Troung, Vice President Technology-Customer & Digital, joins Southwest in this new role to lead our Digital & Customer Technology Teams, supporting the Customer organization to drive business strategies through technology enablement. Troung has held significant leadership roles throughout his career. Most recently, he was a Partner at Credera Consulting and Globant for seven years, where he focused on digital strategy and engineering solutions for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., LATAM, and EMEA. Prior to that, Troung was Director of Technology leading digital planning and development at Southwest Airlines. His career began in management consulting at Arthur Andersen in Dallas. With 23 years of consulting and operations experience, Lu has successfully led large-scale and highly-distributed software development organizations across various digital and technology platforms in the transportation, logistics, hospitality, and financial industries. Lu graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems.

Other organizational updates:

  • Dave Hunt is promoted to Vice President Safety & Security. In this role, Hunt is responsible for the overall Leadership, direction, innovation, and management of the Safety & Security Department-serving as the principal advocate for initiatives further enhancing Safety, Airport Security, and Environmental Services, as well as the critical importance of safeguarding Southwest's operations and interests. He steps into this role as Scott Halfmann retires and moves to an Executive Advisor role after 36 years of contributions at Southwest Airlines.
  • Southwest recognizes the complexity of its operation and network, so the carrier created a Vice President Crew Planning & Analytics role that will report to Senior Vice President Air Operations Alan Kasher. This function will also collaborate closely with Crew Scheduling, Flight Operations, Inflight Operations, and the Network Planning and Network Operations Planning organizations. The Crew Planning & Analytics Department will drive network and operational efficiencies by optimizing the alignment of Crew Members with the carrier's schedule and fleet while maximizing Crew Members' line values.

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