DALLAS — Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is revamping its board, but keeping its CEO, after months of pressure for leadership changes from hedge fund Elliott Investment Management.
Southwest said Tuesday that board chairman Gary Kelly will voluntarily retire after Southwest’s annual meeting next year and six directors will leave the board in November. Robert Jordan will remain as CEO.
The news comes shortly after Elliott Investment Management announced it has control of the 10% of shares required to call a special meeting. The activist investor has previously called for the ouster of Kelly and Jordan and outlined plans to nominate 10 candidates to the airline’s 15-member board of directors.
Here’s who remains on Southwest Airlines’ board of directors and here’s who’s leaving.
Who’s leaving
- Gary Kelly: Kelly began his career at Southwest Airlines in 1986 as controller before he became chief financial officer, executive vice president and CFO in 2001 before he was promoted to CEO and vice chairman of the board in July 2004. He served as Southwest’s CEO until 2022, when Jordan took over.
- David Biegler: Biegler is a longtime Southwest Airlines board member serving as the compensation committee chair. Biegler was formerly chairman, president and CEO of Texas-based Southcross Energy Partners. He also previously served as vice chairman of TXU Corp.
- Veronica Biggins: Biggins is Southwest’s nominating and corporate governance committee chair and has served on the airline’s board for more than 13 years, according to her LinkedIn page. She’s also managing partner at Diversified Search LLC. Biggins previously served on the board of Avnet, as a managing partner at Hodge Partners and a senior partner at Heidrick & Struggles. She also served as Director of Presidential Personnel during the Clinton administration.
- Former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri: Blunt, who served in the U.S. Senate from 2011-2023 was appointed to Southwest Airlines’ board in 2023. Blunt has served as chairman of the leadership strategies advisory services group in the Washington D.C. office of Husch Blackwell Strategies, a government affairs advisory firm. He served as the Missouri Secretary of State from 1985 to 1993, and as president of Southwest Baptist University from 1993 to 1996. He also serves as President of the State Historical Society of Missouri and an Executive Fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Blunt also Chairs the advisory Board for the National Geospatial Agency of the U. S. Government.
- Dr. William Cunningham: Cunningham serves as lead director of the board and was appointed to Southwest Airlines’ board in 2000. He previously served as chancellor of the University of Texas System from 1992 to 2000, as president of the University of Texas at Austin from 1985 to 1992 and as dean of the College and Graduate School of Business from 1983 to 1985.
- Dr. Thomas Gilligan: Gilligan serves as audit committee chairman and has served on Southwest’s board since 2015. Gilligan served as the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University from 2015 to 2019. Prior to his appointment at the Hoover Institution, Dr. Gilligan served as the Dean of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin from 2008 to Aug. 2015, where he also held the Centennial Chair in Business Education Leadership.
- Jill Soltau: Soltau was appointed to Southwest Airlines’ board in 2023. She served as CEO of JC Penney from 2018 to 2020. Prior to that, she served as CEO of JoAnn Stores Inc. from 2015 to 2018.
Who’s staying
- Lisa Atherton: Atherton was nominated to Southwest’s board as director earlier this year. Atherton is president and CEO of Bell Flight.
- Douglas Brooks: Brooks was appointed to Southwest’s board in 2010. He previously served as CEO of Brinker International, the parent company of Chili’s, On the Border, and more, from 2004 through 2012.
- Eduardo Conrado: Conrado was nominated to join Southwest’s board in 2023. Conrado is president of Ascension, the country’s largest nonprofit health system.
- Rakesh Gangwal: Gangwal was appointed to Southwest’s board of directors earlier this year. He’s a co-founder of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) India’s largest airline by fleet size. Before co-founding IndiGo in 2006, Gangwal served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Worldspan Technologies.
- David Hess: Hess was appointed to Southwest Airlines’ board of directors in 2021. He most recently served as the CEO of Arconic Corporation.
- Elaine Mendoza: Mendoza was also nominated to Southwest’s board in 2023. Mendoza is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Conceptual MindWorks, Inc., an informatics company she founded in 1990 that specializes in providing health-related software and medical informatics to the private sector.
- Christopher Reynolds: Reynolds was appointed to Southwest Airlines’ board of directors in 2021. Reynolds serves as executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Toyota Motor North America. Prior to joining Toyota in 2007, Reynolds was a partner at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in New York City.
