Continental Airlines and United
Airlines on Tuesday selected the senior management team for the merged carrier,
taking a blend of executives from each airline to report directly to Continental
CEO Jeff Smisek, who will maintain the chief executive role once the transaction
closes.
Overseeing the sales organization
will be Continental's Jim Compton, who will maintain his role as chief marketing
officer and to whom the corporate sales force will report. Meanwhile, Jeff Foland,
United's senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, will become the
head of the combined carrier's loyalty program.
Other appointments from United
include Keith Halbert as chief information officer, Pete McDonald as chief operations
officer and Tom Sabatino as general counsel. From Continental, Zane Rowe will be
continue to be CFO, Mike Bonds will head human resources and labor relations while
Nene Foxhall will take the helm for communications and government affairs.
As planned from the beginning,
United CEO Glenn Tilton will become non-executive chairman of the merged carrier.
The carriers in a statement said
the new leadership team, along with Smisek, would flesh out the rest of the organization,
and said they "are developing a talent-selection process for other management
and clerical roles and refining the planned organizational structure."
Meanwhile, United said its president,
John Tague, along with CFO Kathryn Mikells, Mileage Plus president Graham Atkinson
and senior vice president of corporate and government affairs Rosemary Moore will
leave once the transaction is closed.
Smisek and Tilton last week during
separate second-quarter earnings calls said the carriers continue to expect the
transaction to close before year-end. Smisek said the companies have "several
hundred people divided into about 30 functional teams working on integration planning,"
while both carriers are working with the U.S. Departments of Transportation and
Justice to comply with pending reviews. Shareholder approval should come in the
September, Smisek said. "Things are progressing well and I remain confident
that we will close the transaction in the fourth quarter," he added.
Also on Tuesday, the European
Commission said it would not contest the United-Continental merger.