United Airlines announced this morning that it has made a couple of changes in its upper executive ranks.
The airline announced that John Tague is the airline’s new COO, replacing Pete McDonald.
And here is where the corporate nomenclature gets a little, ah, thick.
In its release, the airline says that McDonald will become the new chief administrative officer. But that Graham Atkinson, chief customer officer, will continue to spearhead United’s customer experience work and will report to McDonald.
Seems way too top-heavy to me. Smacks of a move designed to basically demote McDonald, but at the same time, keep him in the executive ranks long enough for him to get a nice merger-related payoff.
Ticker: (Nasdaq:UAUA)
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Holly said:
snip … Smacks of a move designed to basically demote McDonald, but at the same time, keep him in the executive ranks long enough for him to get a nice merger-related payoff.
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Typical of the executive trash that infests American corporations, regardless of industry.
Such is life.
Dead on the mark. It’s sick that executives can fire a thousand line workers – people that 1Ks like me depend on! – but keep the top ranks bloated. Got to have that golden parachute!
I wouldn’t begrudge him that if UA weren’t bleeding cash and laying off workers, but come on – trim the fat.
With a little bit of inside knowledge, my opinion is that Pete McDonald (who is popular with rank and file employees) may have had professional differences with this CEO, Tilton.
This is his ‘reward’ for probably speaking his mind. McDonald is a long-time loyal employee. Tilton is just another CEO coming in to rape and pillage UA.