Gil West promoted to EVP and COO

[WorldTraveler]

ATLANTA, Feb. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines' (DAL) Board of Directors Friday approved the appointment of Wayne Gilbert "Gil" West to executive vice president and chief operating officer effective March 1, 2014. West will succeed Stephen E. Gorman who will retire after leading Delta's operations divisions since 2007.

"Under Gil's leadership since joining Delta in 2008, ACS and TechOps have achieved double-digit percentage improvements in key operational performance metrics," CEO Richard Anderson said in a memo to Delta employees. "His passion for Delta and Delta people runs high. Gil's keen business acumen and drive for continuous improvement will ensure Delta sustains and builds on its operational momentum during 2014, despite a challenging start to the year, and into the future."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-names-gil-west-executive-203400236.html

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

"Background
Mr. Gil West serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Laidlaw Transit Services of Laidlaw International Inc. Mr. West served as Interim Chief Executive Officer of Intermet Corp. since March 2006.

He served as President of Timco Aviation Services Inc. since January 2002 and Chief Operating Officer, since September 2001 and served as Executive Vice President from September 2001 to January 2002.

He joined Aviation Sales Co. in September 2001.

Prior to joining Aviation Sales Co., he served as an executive at Northwest Airlines since 1996. In his most recent position as Northwest's Vice President of Engine and Component Technical Operations, he managed over 2,000 Northwest maintenance employees in Northwest's Minneapolis and Atlanta maintenance facilities, as well as managing outside vendor maintenance operations.


Prior to joining Northwest, he served in various managerial positions with United Airlines, Rohr Industries, Sundstrand Corporation, BF Goodrich, Hamilton-Sundstrand Corporation and Boeing Commercial Aircraft. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Engineering degree and National University where he received a Master of Business Administration degree."

I remember him well. He was the lead on dismantling one of the most succesful engine overhaul operations in the world at the Northwest Airlines Atlanta JT-8 overhaul facility.

 

[WorldTraveler]

yet surprisingly, DL has one of the world's largest engine shops.

Can you tell us why DL has been able to maintain what NW couldn't?

JT-8Ds? Are you sure the dismantling wasn't related to the retirement of the planes they flew on?

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

yet surprisingly, DL has one of the world's largest engine shops.Can you tell us why DL has been able to maintain what NW couldn't?JT-8Ds? Are you sure the dismantling wasn't related to the retirement of the planes they flew on?

They had a great opportunity to turn that shop into a CFM-56 overhaul. They even started tooling up for it. Of course that changed when they decided to spend the money to reduce, rather than increase production.

It probably had much to do with the environmental issues from having a plating shop and treatment plant on site. Those challenges could have been overcome. However, I think they made a strategic decision to start attacking AMFA and ATL was a huge AMFA stronghold. Closing that base was instrumental in the effort to scatter, smother, and cover AMFA (thanks Waffle House).

The rest is history. Gil and Richard go way back.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm not necessarily denying what may have happened but I believe there are major environmental problems with NW's former ATL facility. At some point, it had to either be cleaned up or closed. I believe the minimum amount of work was done to ensure there is no leakage from the facility but the facility has not been cleaned up.
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but it is easy to argue that labor was targeted if you don't acknowledge the environmental problems which existed.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

I'm not necessarily denying what may have happened but I believe there are major environmental problems with NW's former ATL facility. At some point, it had to either be cleaned up or closed. I believe the minimum amount of work was done to ensure there is no leakage from the facility but the facility has not been cleaned up.Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but it is easy to argue that labor was targeted if you don't acknowledge the environmental problems which existed.

Did you read my post? I did acknowledge the problems at the plant. Clean up was cheaper than the shutdown.

I knew that facility intimately.

Some things you will just not know WT, and that is ok.

Given the same situation, as a business owner, had I known the merger was coming, I would have made the same call.

The huge qualifier was knowing the merger was coming. I think they did, hence the decision to rid the industry of AMFA, and close the facility. A two-for.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm not as ignorant of the labor situation as you might think.

I seriously question your statement that it was cheaper to clean up the facility than to shut it down. I doubt very seriously that you saw the budget to clean up the facility.

Regardless, I respect that you apparently worked in the shadows of DL's HDQs for years and apparently made the decision to leave DL to work for what I guess was Republic and later became DL. It is good to know your story and I respect you for what you did with your career.

Everyone sees the world thru their own perspective and I have my doubts that you can accept that AMFA and NW were on a collision course and NW was determined not to blink. I know the labor conflicts that existed at NW. But I also know the facility in which you apparently worked had and still has serious environmental problems.

and if you and others knew that NW was out to bust AMFA, why did AMFA engage in a risky strike that ultimately ended very badly for AMFA?

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

I will not rehash the AMFA deal here, again.

You are also mistaken on my career path. I have a great deal of experience with RCRA.

Richard is slowly bringing back his team from the 90's.

 

[WorldTraveler]

ok...that is fine regarding your history. You are free to not reveal it.

Doesn't change that you apparently want to paint it all as a "they were against us" when there were real environmental issues that still have not been corrected.

Richard may be bringing back his own team but the big difference is that DL people make more than NW people did relative to their peers and DL has the financial strength and strategic advantage to keep that going.

I still wouldn't mind a summary sentence or two as to why AMFA engaged in the strike if they really believed that mgmt was against them. I quite simply did not follow the story at the time enough or since to be able to understand all of the factors that were involved. I do know that in the end, AMFA lost and, yes, I do believe that NW needed to fix the situation if they wanted to sell the airline to DL.

 

[Kev3188]

I still wouldn't mind a summary sentence or two as to why AMFA engaged in the strike if they really believed that mgmt was against them.

What would you expect them to do?

As for West? I think we should've seen this (or a similar) move coming. That whole "sharing" of ACS deal with Lentsch seemed manufactured as an interim deal...

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm just asking - without any judgment - if a union doesn't calculate the risk of succeeding in its actions. If AMFA believed NW execs were already planning to out them, I'm trying to understand the risk calculation that took place.

More specific to DL today, what difference does it make?

Operationally, the areas that he was responsible for are running very well.

 

[Kev3188]

That's not what I asked.

What would you have expected them to do?

What's it have to do with today? Everything & nothing. All at once.

 

[WorldTraveler]

ok... so we have a standoff with both of us asking different questions and no forward movement in the conversation.

I'm providing an opportunity for you to offer your perspectives.

You can start by unpacking your last sentence and we can work backward if get past that last statement.

I understand the man's past work history and what some say he did at NW. I'm not ready to say that he will do the same thing today or that the reasons he did what he did were solely because he was out for labor. And I'm still trying to understand why if labor new that relationships with NW mgmt was strained why they engaged in a risky strategy that ended up costing AMFA dearly.

 

[Kev3188]

Providing an opportunity? Gosh, that sure is nice of you!

Again, knowing that the company was out to crush them, what would you expect them to do?

 

[WorldTraveler]

whether it is nice or not doesn't change that I asked questions which you or Q are welcome to answer.

If the answer to being in the crosshairs is to escalate the conflict, then that strategy is full of risk.

I don't have all of the history, but I believe it had been well discussed that NW was training replacement workers before the strike actually took place.

Perhaps AMFA didn't really think NW would lock AMFA out, but what strategy would you have proposed, even knowing how it turned out?