NWA shakes up its board

Font Size:
Default font size
Larger font size

MINNEAPOLIS - Northwest Airlines Corp. named a new chairman and five new board members on Friday as it gets closer to its planned June emergence from bankruptcy.

The new board sweeps out the last of the investors who led the buyout of Northwest in 1989 - current chairman Gary L. Wilson and board member Fred Malek.

Once Northwest emerges from bankruptcy protection, its new chairman will be current board member Roy Bostock, a principal at private investment firm Sealedge Investments LLC. He is a former CEO of advertising firm D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles.

Bostock joined the board in 2005, five months before Northwest filed for Chapter 11 protection. He is also a director at Morgan Stanley Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.

CEO Doug Steenland is staying on the board. The company didn't directly address whether he was considered for the chairman's position, but it said it is continuing Wilson's practice of separating the two roles.

Wilson said in a prepared statement that he is leaving "because I believe in term limits and because my other business interests do not allow me sufficient time to continue leading the board."

Dana J. Lockhart, chairman of the committee of unsecured creditors, said the committee is pleased with the makeup of the new board.

Other new members of the 12-member board include:

3 Domino's Pizza Inc. chairman and CEO David Brandon.

3 Mike Durham, former CEO of electronic travel reservation company Sabre Inc.

3 Mickey Foret, who was Northwest's chief financial officer from 1998 until 2002.

3 James Postl, who was CEO of Pennzoil-Quaker State from 2000 to 2002.

3 Former U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

The 1989 leveraged buyout for more than $3.5 billion was led by Alfred A. Checchi along with Wilson and Malek - all three of them former Marriott Corp. executives. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was also an investor. Northwest board member and Air France-KLM vice chairman Leo van Wijk also was not included on the new board.

Some previous members of Northwest's board are staying, including author Doris Kearns Goodwin, former Michigan Gov. John Engler and Northwest pilot William Zoller. Northwest's pilots union retained the right to appoint a member to the board of directors. The union for ground workers and a previous union for flight attendants each lost the board seats they once held.

Print Email

/news/state-and-regional
 
Sponsored by:

Connect with Us