Biography of Howard Putnam

Howard Putnam is the former CEO of Southwest and Braniff Airlines and Group VP Marketing for United Airlines. Howard is a business and motivational speaker, author, consultant, commentator, and online mentor on: Leadership, Customer Service, Change, Transformation and Ethics. Today, he is also Co-founder and Chairman in 1998 of AIR, Aircraft Interior Resources in Houston.

Howard Putnam was raised on an Iowa farm and learned to fly out of a pasture in his Father’s J-3 Piper Cub. He entered the airline business as a baggage handler at Midway Airport in Chicago for Capital Airlines at age 17. Capital was soon merged into United and Howard held thirteen different positions in sales, services and staff assignments in several cities, before being named Group Vice President of Marketing for United Airlines, the world’s largest airline, in 1976.

In 1978 he was recruited to become President and CEO of fledgling Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX. While at Southwest Howard and his team tripled the revenues and tripled profitability in three years. They also successfully guided Southwest through airline deregulation and Southwest was the first air carrier to order the Boeing 737-300, which later became the largest selling aircraft ever for Boeing.

Howard led the visioning process at Southwest as well as further developing the “fun” culture and excellent customer service that South is still known for today. Southwest has been profitable in every quarter for over twenty-five years, a record unsurpassed by any airline.

In 1981, Howard was recruited by the board of directors of Braniff International to come aboard as CEO and save and/or restructure the financially failing airline. He was the first airline CEO to successfully take a major carrier into, through and out of chapter 11. Braniff flew again in 1984.

He is the author of “The Winds of Turbulence” on leadership and ethics. Harvard University wrote a case study on his experiences at Braniff, “The Ethics of Bankruptcy” as a model as to how to handle stakeholders in crisis.

He has since been an entrepreneur, the Chairman of a startup investment company and in 1998, the co-founder and chairman of AIR, a commercial airline seat refurbishment company.

Howard and Krista have two children, Michael, a commercial airline captain and Sue, in public relations and marketing.

Speech Topics

Leadership: Successful Strategies Through Turbulence Innovation: Creating a Culture and Process for Ideas to Hatch

Change: Transforming Organizations Successfully & Profitably

People and Culture: Hiring Attitudes & Developing Their Skills

Ethics: The Ultimate Challenge in Ethics; Are You Really the Person Your Dog Thinks You Are?