Career
The Kellehers moved to Texas intending to start a law firm or a business. Kelleher and one of his law clients, Texas businessman Rollin King, created the concept that later became Southwest Airlines on a cocktail napkin in a San Antonio, Texas restaurant. From its birth in 1971 — after overcoming a year's worth of legal challenges from competitors who tried to keep it grounded — Southwest succeeded by daring to be different: offering low fares to its passengers by eliminating unnecessary services and avoiding the "hub-and-spoke" scheduling system used by other airlines in favor of building traffic in such secondary airports as Albany, Chicago-Midway (instead of Chicago-O'Hare) and Orange County.
During his tenure as CEO of Southwest, Kelleher's colorful personality created a corporate culture which made Southwest employees well known for taking themselves lightly—often singing in-flight announcements to the tune of popular theme songs—but their jobs seriously. Southwest has never had an in-flight fatality. Southwest is consistently named among the top five Most Admired Corporations in America in Fortune magazine's annual poll. Fortune has also called him perhaps the best CEO in America. Mr. Kelleher was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2004.
On July 19, 2007, Southwest Airlines announced that Kelleher would step down from the role of Chairman and resign from the board of directors in May 2008, though he would remain a full time employee for another five years. Kelleher ultimately stepped down as chairman on May 21, 2008. Immediately following, Southwest Airlines named current CEO, Gary C. Kelly the new Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In July, 2010 Kelleher was appointed Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas board of directors for 2011. Kelleher's term will expire in 2013. Previously, he had served as Deputy Chair.
Read more about this topic: Herb Kelleher
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