Biography|Gary C. Kelly — The Board Named Him CEO in This Building

People treat airline successions as staged multi-year handoffs. This one landed in a morning.

On 15 July 2004 James F. Parker retired as chief executive and as a director, effective that day. Southwest said so in an 8-K exhibit issued from Dallas.

Herb Kelleher, still chairman, told the board that Kelly would succeed Parker as vice chairman and CEO. Kelly was forty-nine and had been executive vice president and CFO since 2001.

Parker had told Kelleher the week before that he was thinking of leaving. The New York Times reported that Kelly first heard on Monday, when Kelleher named him the successor.

Thursday morning Parker told the directors. The company had already released second-quarter results. A scheduled analyst call became Kelly's first appearance as chief executive.

The headquarters at 2702 Love Field Drive had opened in 1990 on a tract beside the airport. The announcement was made from that campus, next to the runway the airline had fought to keep.

Kelleher's statement to the filing praised the balance sheet and the fuel book Kelly had overseen as CFO. A labor lawyer left the chair. A CPA took it.

Laura Wright, then vice president of finance and treasurer, moved into the CFO office the same day. The finance bench stayed inside this building.

Photo: Mang9, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons