Dave Neelman of JetBlue made $118 million in 2007

[johnsonrod]

what's wrong with selling your stock? how does that relate to employees working their arse off? one has nothing to do with the other... if he had sold when it was at 60 in the beginning that would be one thing, but now?

Selling a huge chunk like this in one year (2007) sends a message... What happened to holding on to it for the long-term????

 

[TWA]

Yeah, it sends the message that he's pissed that he isn't the CEO anymore and now has better things to do with his time.

He started the company and should reap the rewards. Where do all these pilots get the idea that just because they fly for an airline they should be the only ones making money???

If you want to reap all of the rewards, start your own airline, take the risk yourself. Let me know how it turns out.

 

[climbhappy]

it almost always says (no matter the industry) that there is a lack of confidence in the company. but we can't rule out some big accouting reason or to hoard cash for some other opportunity.

 

[AKAAB]

it almost always says (no matter the industry) that there is a lack of confidence in the company. but we can't rule out some big accouting reason or to hoard cash for some other opportunity.

Bingo! David has his sights set on the gasification of coal and will probably make another mint. I hope he buys one of those new corporate Embraers! :laugh:

 

[whymeworry?]

What in the fk do these so-called genius' really do to earn that kind of coin?

1) The entire economy is facing a meltdown of epic proportions in 2008 due to the action of guys like the Merrill Lynch CEO (he threw the firm headlong into Mortgage-back securities, the cause of the credit market decimation).

2) Bob Nardelli virtually wrecked Home Depot. The employees left for Lowes as did the customers (under his reign he believed in paycuts for employees, they voted with their feet, we as customers suffered).

3) Dave Neeleman couldn't manage an airline in a snowstorm crisis... an airline that is based where snow storms regularly occur. (he couldn't manage the bottomline due to runaway fuel prices either... READ: as fuel goes up, RAISE YOU'RE PRICES).

I just don't see what these guys do that makes them so worth the money. The BODs of these companies should do time for this kind of robbery. It puts the nation's future at risk.

I have no problem with competitively compensating executives. But golden parachutes like this prove there is no accountability on Wall Street. It's no wonder London is kicking America out of the top spot in the financial world.

 

[Bavarian Chef]

What a bogus thread this is. While DN may have proved the "Peter Principle" in the sense that his airline grew to a level above his compentency (okay, a slight perversion of the PP, but think about it and it fits), he cannot be compared to the typical airline exec. DN started JB from the ground up, put his own money up, worked for YEARS before and after 2000 to get it running and help make it successful. His departure was welcome, but in the end, his vision and efforts created an airline (and 10000 jobs). Most airline execs can't even create their own bowel movements without a stock distribution from the BOD.

He who risks, wins.

whymeworry -- a large part of the reason for our Valentine's Day Massacre is so simple you would probably get lost wrapping your mind around it:

Back then we never canceled flights. On that day we operated under the idea that if a person bought a ticket, then it is our job to get them there, no matter when. Since the reign of Russ "Big League" Chew, we cancel all the time. We canceled plenty over the last weekend, except on Christmas Eve, when it really counted not to screw it up. Did it make the news. No.

Look at United's Christmas though: cancel and you're fooked. Don't cancel and you're fooked. Stoopid bizness or stoopid passengers or stoopid media? I'll wager it's all three.

 

[mooney flier]

What in the fk do these so-called genius' really do to earn that kind of coin?

1) The entire economy is facing a meltdown of epic proportions in 2008 due to the action of guys like the Merrill Lynch CEO (he threw the firm headlong into Mortgage-back securities, the cause of the credit market decimation).

2) Bob Nardelli virtually wrecked Home Depot. The employees left for Lowes as did the customers (under his reign he believed in paycuts for employees, they voted with their feet, we as customers suffered).

3) Dave Neeleman couldn't manage an airline in a snowstorm crisis... an airline that is based where snow storms regularly occur. (he couldn't manage the bottomline due to runaway fuel prices either... READ: as fuel goes up, RAISE YOU'RE PRICES).

I just don't see what these guys do that makes them so worth the money. The BODs of these companies should do time for this kind of robbery. It puts the nation's future at risk.

I have no problem with competitively compensating executives. But golden parachutes like this prove there is no accountability on Wall Street. It's no wonder London is kicking America out of the top spot in the financial world.

Speaking of which, does anyone know how poor ole Leo Mullin is doing ?

 

[SNOWBUM]

again neeleman did not got 118 mill inshares form the BOD. he started the airline and he got founder shares becaus ehe invested his money and got other venture capitalist and hedge funds to pony up $$$ too. they all agreed to his founder shares BEFORE ipo.

IT DID NOT COST jb ANY . stock options cost money. founder shares are given to founders by the venture capitalist when the stock is issue just to the venture capitalist and it is not expense the way options are.

Is like you owning 20% of a sandwich shop which is publicly traded and then selling your part to someone else, it does not cost your employees or the stock holders any.
furthermore his shares are being sold on autopilot, he set up the sell program when he got ousted, he has to continue regardless of the info he might or might not have, those are programs the SEC set in place so executives with potentially privileged info can sell shares without the aid of insider info.

everyone is happy he left, but him making millions does not hurt JB or its employees at all.

 

[zonker]

Just remember, they can't pay you because they're still a "new" carrier.

But someday, Dave is going to take care of you. Just not today.

 

[zonker]

oh yeah.

lather, rinse, repeat

 

[AC560]

but that's a bit extreme considering the lackluster performance of the stoc

That lackluster stock performance cost him a lot of money.

 

[Bavarian Chef]

That lackluster stock performance cost him a lot of money.

Bingo! Think of how much money he could have made.

 

[Sedona16]

http://weblogs.newsday.com/business/blog/2007/12/jetblue_faces_challenges_in_fi.html

JetBlue faces challenges in first new year without founder Neeleman

For the first time in its eight-year history, JetBlue Airways Corp. will begin a new year without David Neeleman, who founded the airline in 1999, as its chief executive officer.

Neeleman was pushed upstairs, to the rank of non-executive chairman, soon after the worst episode in the airline's history. It was on Valentine's Day that thousands of JetBlue passengers were stranded -- some on planes sitting on runways for hours -- as an ice and snow storm gripped much of the East Coast.

While most airlines had trouble that day, JetBlue's problems were among the worst because the Forest Hills-based airline -- as had been its long-standing custom -- refused to cancel any flights.
Neeleman accepted blame, and was replaced as CEO by JetBlue's president, David Barger.
Now, it is Barger's show. He has, in the view of analysts, gotten off to a good start. He immediately shook up senior management, bringing in a veteran Federal Aviation Administration official, Russell Chew, to be JetBlue's chief operating officer. JetBlue has also voluntarily adopted a customer bill of rights, providing passengers delayed on planes for more than five hours to deplane.
Under Barger, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the German airline, took a 19 percent stake in JetBlue, paying the airline $300 million, which adds liquidity to the discount
carrier. Lufthansa, which announced the stake earlier this month, has not yet said whether it has any plans for JetBlue's future.
But Barger faces many challenges in the year ahead. One is competition from Virgin America, the start-up launched by U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, which
announced recently more flights from California to Kennedy Airport, JetBlue's main hub.
Another is fuel prices, a problem all airlines face. JetBlue's stock has
also plummeted in the last year, causing a loss of more than half its market value. Investors will be looking for how Barger plans to raise the company's stock
price.
JetBlue has always wanted to grow, and grow fast. That was the Neeleman way. Neeleman added Embraer-built jets to the company's fleet of Airbus planes, and
as a result JetBlue's debt stands at about $2.7 billion, among the highest in the airline industry, While JetBlue has slowed its growth -- cutting back on the new
Embraer planes it will add to its fleet in 2008 -- it has still added 12 percent more capacity this year, while some of its rivals have been cutting back.
So Barger will have his work cut out for him. Not everyone is optimistic either. Veteran airline analyst Jamie Baker, in a recent report, said JetBlue may
be a takeover target, although he did not name any suitors. Baker predicted the airline will lose money in '08, and advised clients to sell.

--Jim Bernstein




Posted by Noel Rubinton on December 24, 2007 12:36 PM | Permalink