Nearly three decades ago, a young business school grad named Robert Isom applied for a job at Northwest Airlines outside Minneapolis.
Isom had studied mechanical engineering at Notre Dame and worked at Procter & Gamble before heading back to school for an MBA at the University of Michigan.
The person doing the hiring was Doug Parker, and little did they know at the time that together they would transform the airline industry and run the largest airline in the world by many measures for five years.
Isom said in an interview Tuesday that another friend of his, Derek Kerr, who’s now American’s chief financial officer, “was a big proponent of me getting to know Doug Parker, and that was pretty good advice.”
On Tuesday, Isom, American Airlines’ president, was named the company’s next CEO with plans to take over the job from his longtime business partner on March 31.
Parker is retiring after 20 years of leading airlines. Isom has been with Parker at some point during every stop in that airline journey, starting at Northwest and then at America West in Phoenix. At America West, Parker was named the CEO in 2001. America West acquired US Airways in 2007 and kept the US Airways name.
Isom, 58, takes over the job leading one of the most important economic forces in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. American has 30,000 employees locally out of more than 125,000 globally. The airline is responsible for about 80% of the flights in and out of DFW International Airport, 900 a day during peak periods, making it the fourth-busiest airport in the world.
Isom grew up outside Detroit, Mich., and found his way into the airline industry in his late 20s after giving up a career at Procter & Gamble in favor of getting a master’s degree in business administration.
After Northwest, where he held jobs in operations and finance, he went to work at America West Airlines in Phoenix in 1995, where Parker was chief financial officer. Isom worked his way through positions in revenue management, operations and finance.
Isom left the industry to be the chief restructuring officer at struggling mortgage company GMAC and then reunited with Parker in 2007 at US Airways in Phoenix during the era of consolidation within the industry, eventually lining up the company for a merger with bankrupt American Airlines in 2013.
In 2013, the pair courted unions and investors in a takeover of bankrupt American Airlines, a move that was initially resisted and then embraced as the only path to save the struggling and debt-laden American.
In fact, Isom and Parker came through America West and US Airways with a group that would later lead American with Kerr and future United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby.
In recent years, Isom has taken an increasingly visible role at the head of the company next to Parker, his friend for nearly three decades and colleague since 1995.
“It’s hard to meet Robert and not notice how much passion he has and how much energy he has, and his desire to make sure things are done well,” Parker said in an interview Tuesday.
Airline industry analyst Helane Becker said in a note to investors that Isom likely won’t bring major change to American.
“We do not expect much to change at American when Mr. Isom becomes CEO, but that said, we think he will focus on operations (his wheelhouse) and work toward returning American to an industry-leading position,” Becker said in the investor note. “His operations background suggests to us a focus on improving on-time performance and other aspects of the operations (think baggage handling, aircraft inductions, etc.).”
Much of Isom’s work at American Airlines has been in integrating US Airways and American Airlines into one company and on improving the operations of the combined carrier. He worked as chief operating officer from 2013 to 2016, when Kirby, president at American at that time, left to take the same job at Chicago-based United Airlines.
“I cannot imagine a more well-suited or well-prepared person to be taking the reins than Robert,” Parker said in a video message Tuesday. “We’ve worked together closely for two decades and known each other even longer.”
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