Glenn Tilton

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Glenn Fletcher Tilton (born April 1948 in Washington, DC) is the Chairman, President, and CEO of UAL Corporation and its subsidiaries, most notably United Air Lines, Inc. He has held this role since September 2002, 3 months before UAL Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. He came to UAL from ChevronTexaco.

Tilton is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Air Transport Association, the industry trade organization representing the leading U.S. airlines, which, along with their affiliates, transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic.

Tilton grew up in Latin America, and attended high school in Brazil, where his father worked for the United States' Central Intelligence Agency. After earning a bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of South Carolina, Tilton originally was going to follow his father's footsteps and join the C.I.A. Instead, Tilton began a career in the private sector working for Texaco in 1970, servicing gas stations throughout Washington, D.C.

Tilton attained positions of increasing responsibility over the next three decades, and in early 2001 Tilton was briefly named chairman and chief executive officer before Chevron and Texaco merged to form ChevronTexaco Corporation. He was named vice chairman of the newly merged company in late 2001 and a few months later assumed was also named interim chairman of Dynegy, in which ChevronTexaco held a significant stake.

In September 2002, Tilton was recruited by the Board of Directors of the struggling UAL Corporation to be Chairman, President, and CEO, replacing John W. Creighton, Jr. as Chairman and CEO, and Rono Dutta as President. The board believed that an airline outsider such as Tilton could turnaround the struggling carrier. UAL Corporation and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in December, 2002 only three months into Tilton's tenure.

After entering bankruptcy, Tilton, known for his tough negotiating tactics, sought and achieved major reductions in employees' pay to stabilize the company.

Tilton then initiated a restructuring of the company outsourcing portions of the airline’s maintenance business, launching “Operation Starfish,” later to be known as Ted (which was folded late in 2008), and expanding more profitable international routes. Tilton believed that after restructuring United’s operations and negotiating lower wages, the Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) would this time back the airline's exit facility and allow it to emerge from bankruptcy.

Yet, under steep political pressure, the ATSB rejected United's application. Upon rejection of the federal loan guarantee in June 2004, Tilton had limited avenues available to exit bankruptcy. The reported stance of UAL's bankers is that they would fund a non-guaranteed exit facility only if UAL's employee retirement pensions were terminated. Thus, Tilton claimed he would either have to halt operations and liquidate the carrier, or go to the unions to force termination of the airline's employee pensions so it could acquire the exit facility needed to leave bankruptcy. Tilton decided on the latter and after reaching a deal with the Federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) to assume UAL's pensions, UAL's employee pensions were terminated and transferred to the PBGC and the company came to an agreement on an exit facility.

UAL Corporation exited bankruptcy on February 2, 2006.

Tilton is controversial for his stance as a major advocate for consolidation in the airline industry. Tilton has stated he believes it is the only way to end commercial aviation's cycles of booms and busts. Since 2006, Tilton has been searching for a merger partner for United Airlines. After failed negotiations with Continental Airlines and US Airways Group, in the summer of 2008, Tilton settled on an agreement with Continental to form a marketing agreement, but not an official merger as he hoped for. The agreement is scheduled to take effect in 2009. Tilton still claims to be open and willing to participate in a merger transaction when the right opportunity arises.

Tilton continues to have a confrontational relationship with UAL's unions. Employees were greatly affected by steep contract cuts and pension losses that occurred during bankruptcy (pilots lost approximately 50% of their salaries and the majority of their pensions), but Tilton received compensation officially valued at $39,700,000 in 2006, though that value has dwindled along with the value of UAUA stock on which much of it is based.

In the summer of 2008 the Air Line Pilots Association's United Master Executive Council (MEC), under the leadership of Captain Steve Wallach, launched a website (www.glenntilton.com) calling for Tilton's resignation, though Tilton has stated he will not do so. Captain Wallach is also on UAL's Board of Directors. Tilton's UAL then sued the United MEC over what it called an illegal "work slowdown" and on November 18, 2008 the United States District Court issued a preliminary injunction on the Air Line Pilots Association that was upheld on appeal.

Tilton serves on the board of directors of Abbott Laboratories and a member of the U.S. Travel & Tourism Advisory Board. Tilton also serves on the board of trustees for the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, and the board for the Economic Club of Chicago, the Executives' Club of Chicago, and After School Matters, as well as on the civic committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the International Relations Advisory Council of Chicago 2016.

[edit] Personal

Tilton speaks 3 languages - English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Tilton and his wife, Jackie, have two children. He lives in Chicago.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Tilton"
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