Biography
Born in Toronto, Canada on July 23, 1946, Carty attended Queen's University and Harvard Business School. He worked for Air Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway before joining American, although he served as CEO for CP Air from 1985 to 1987. At American, he served as controller, and later as executive vice president for finance and planning under CEO Robert Crandall.
In April 2003, in the long wake of the September 11 attacks and facing an industry beset by terrorism and hard times, Carty and his executive board were forced to strike a cost-cutting deal with American's labor unions, intended to mitigate AMR's upcoming $1 billion first-quarter loss. The deal—the largest corporate restructuring outside of bankruptcy in American history—almost unraveled several days later, when unions learned that AMR executives were keeping $41 million in retention bonuses. Although many other airlines had similar retention bonus arrangements, several AMR board members—most notably University of Oklahoma president David L. Boren--called for Carty's resignation.
Carty stepped down on April 24, 2003. He was replaced as CEO by Gerard Arpey, and as chairman by Edward A. Brennan.
Carty was appointed as Chairman of Virgin America on February 6, 2006. On February 2 of that year, Toronto-based Porter Airlines, in the process of starting up a small regional service out of the downtown Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, announced that Carty would simultaneously serve as its chairman. He is also a director of Sears, CHC Helicopter, Barrick Gold, and Dell, becoming the latter's chief financial officer on 1 January 2007. On May 19, 2008, Dell announced that Carty, hired to help lead the computer maker's successful turnaround, would step down and be replaced by longtime General Electric executive Brian Gladden on June 13. Dell said that Carty would stay on as Vice Chairman.
In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Read more about this topic: Donald J. Carty
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)