Herb Kelleher ’53 on fuel costs, his book, and Napoleon’s army

Founder and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher ’53 sits down with Fortune magazine to share his thoughts on a wide range of topics, including the future of Southwest Airlines, politics, power, and the book he’d begun just before 9/11 and is now writing.

“Herb Kelleher and ‘éminence grise’ shouldn’t really go together. But the Wild Turkey 101-drinking, chain-smoking founder and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines (LUV) is now 82 and knows more about the airline industry than practically anyone else on the planet.

“A former lawyer who famously created the business model for Southwest on the back of a (cocktail) napkin, Kelleher is one of those rare birds: an entrepreneur who managed to create a successful startup, then stuck around to build it into a huge corporation and a perennial on this magazine’s Most Admired Companies list. Fortune’s Jennifer Reingold sat down with him in his office at Southwest’s Dallas headquarters to get his take on airline consolidation, the book he’s writing, treating employees right, and basically anything else he felt like discussing.”

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Image: Peter Yang.

Friendly URL: wesconnect.wesleyan.edu/news-20130122-herb-kelleher

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