Laura Wright, CFO of Southwest Airlines, has announced her upcoming retirement.   Wright will retire on Sept 20th but remain within the company until the end of the year to assist in the transition to her named successor, Tammy Romo (current VP of Planning).

Wright is one of many exceptional airline executives that sit at Southwest Airlines.  Frankly, I’ve often wondered why some of those executives don’t get headhunted by other airlines as they tend to be the very cream of the cream of the crop.  Wright’s talent as CFO as well as her ability to partner with SWA executives is an excellent example.

As always, I expect that some will speculate on change at Southwest Airlines with a newcomer.  The thing is, Southwest not only has great executives, they are a great training ground for upcoming executives.  These people get mentored into the company in ways not seen at any other airline.  And somehow they are kept in the fold.

The truth is that SWA could lose half of its executives overnight including the CEO and I think they would barely miss a beat in operating the airline.  Wright was mentored by CEO Kelly and has no doubt mentored a number of people at SWA as well.  Her calm guidance will be missed when it comes to publicly talking about the airline.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax