Russ seems like a very very nice guy, as well as very very intelligent. From meeting him, he seems like those really educated, 2 Phd Astronauts, who are "off the charts" when it comes to academic smarts.
That being said, I wondered about his "street smarts" after his briefing. He was the head of AA's "SOC" (System Operational Control) which runs the airline day to day from it's DFW center. He was giving us new Captains a "dog and pony" show about the effects of delay and cancellation decisions. Pretty good, but one example had us saying WTF?
He said a wide-body Captain had delayed a flight for a typhoon for 12 hours, cancelling 3 downrange flights, even though DFW said it was ok to "go" (of course). Russ says he goes to meet the CA at DFW on arrival with his "charts and graphs" showing he could go, and also that the AA VP of Flight (Chief Pilot of AA) came along too!
My classmate says "Why the $%^& di Chief XXX KKKKK come along!!! ?" Russ looked like a confused 1st grader, and couldn't understand why 10 Captains were telling him that was BS.
I wish him luck. For once a pilot moved up. He may have dropped the ball, but I think his heart was in the right place.