Oscar Munoz, Part 2
Fmr. Chariman & CEO of United Airlines
I think some of the greatest storytellers have been also the greatest leaders. They can make it, logical, practical, relatable. When you tell a story about an issue and then how you dealt with it, it brings in more resonance and adhesion.
Summary
This week on “Leadership Matters,” former United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz join Alan for his second appearance on the show to discuss his new memoir, Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies. Longtime listeners of the show will know about Oscar’s remarkable leadership journey at United — brought on to help reverse the company’s flagging fortunes, Oscar suffered a heart attack 37 days into the job, ultimately requiring a transplant. Overcoming health problems and a host of challenges with investors and employees, Oscar implemented a remarkable turnaround strategy, investing in the airline’s employees to ensure it was able to meet the needs of all of its stakeholders. In detailing the lessons in leadership he learned at United, Oscar also takes readers through his own life journey as a Latino and a young immigrant to the United States. From respecting frontline workers to meeting employees where they are at, many of Oscar’s core principles are rooted in the values he learned from his family.
Alan and Oscar’s discussion covers a wide variety of topics, delving deep into the book and also building upon some of the core themes of Oscar’s previous episode. For executives across sectors looking for an example of effective leadership from the heart, Oscar’s insights here and in Turnaround Time offers a playbook of how to make transformative change happen by bringing everyone on board.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
Guest Bio
Oscar Munoz served as CEO of United Airlines from Sep 2015-May 2020, before becoming Executive Chairman of the Board, until retiring from that role in May 2021.
During his tenure as CEO, United achieved a rapid turnaround, delivering industry-leading operational reliability as well as sustained financial success, with stock value increasing 54% during that period. Mr. Munoz himself was credited with reestablishing United’s relationship of trust with its own employees and the customers and community whom they serve. Those efforts earned strong support and praise from United’s largest employee unions and resulted in steadily increasing levels of customer satisfaction.
Under Mr. Munoz’ leadership, United sustained an impressive track record for leveraging its unique logistical resources and expertise to benefit communities across the United States and around the world, partnering with federal and local entities in order to deliver vital supplies and personnel to where they were needed most – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic - dramatically expanding the United States’ ability to respond to pressing humanitarian crises.
Mr. Munoz also firmly established United, one of the largest carriers by volume, as the aviation industry’s prime leader toward achieving an environmentally sustainable future, making historic investments in biofuel technology, next-generation efficient aircraft and seeding innovators on the electrical aviation frontier.
As Executive Chairman of UAL, Munoz seized a primary role in helping marshal the global response to the pandemic – partnering with government and administration leaders in support of employees, overseeing the airline’s recovery efforts and working to bring a diverse coalition of people together to create a broad-based, inclusive vision for national economic renewal.
Previously, Oscar served as president and chief operating officer of the North American railbased transportation supplier CSX Corp. A decade of excellent financial performance, including a boost in operating income of nearly 600 percent, earned CSX recognition on the list of Most Honored Companies by Institutional Investor magazine.
Oscar previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Consumer Services at AT&T Corporation. He has also served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration for U.S. West, Regional Vice President of Finance and Administration for Coca-Cola Enterprises, and has held various finance positions at PepsiCo.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CBRE as well as Univision. He is an
Independent Trustee on Fidelity’s Equity & High-Income Funds Board and sits on Salesforce’s Global Advisory Board, as well as the board of Archer Aviation, a leading Urban Air Mobility company and developer of all-electric vertical take-off and landing (“eVTOL”) aircraft. He is a member of the board of trustees for the Brookings Institution, and is a trustee of the University of Southern California, where he earned his undergraduate degree in business. He also received an MBA from Pepperdine.
As a first-generation college graduate from an immigrant family, he and his wife, Cathy, founded Pave It Forward, a foundation that raises scholarship funds for first-generation students. The first Latino to run a major US airline, Hispanic Business magazine twice named Oscar one of its ‘100 Most Influential Hispanics.