Herb Kelleher

Herbert David Kelleher was born on March 12, 1931, in Camden, New Jersey, and was educated at Wesleyan University and New York University School of Law. He moved to Texas in the 1960s and established a successful law practice in San Antonio before partnering with Rollin King to found Southwest Airlines. Kelleher became Southwest's CEO in 1982 and served in that role until 2001, then as Executive Chairman until 2008. He was renowned for his flamboyant personality, his genuine affection for Southwest employees, and his ability to translate an irreverent corporate culture into competitive advantage. He died on January 3, 2019, at the age of 87.

Herb Kelleher is regarded as one of the most influential figures in American business history — not because he invented the low-cost airline model (Freddie Laker in the United Kingdom arguably did that first) but because he institutionalized it within a corporate culture so distinctive and durable that it has outlasted his own tenure and continues to shape Southwest's identity decades after his departure. Kelleher's genius was not operational — he relied on talented operating executives to manage the mechanics of running an airline — but cultural. His conviction that employees should be the company's first priority, customers second, and shareholders third (in that order, he insisted, because satisfied employees would naturally create satisfied customers who would naturally reward shareholders) was radical in its time and remains uncommon today. His personal relationship with Southwest employees — he was known for working baggage ramps on holidays, attending employee weddings and funerals, and responding personally to employee correspondence — created a psychological contract between the company and its workforce that translated into exceptional productivity, low turnover, and a genuine institutional identity that competitors struggled to replicate. His death in January 2019 was mourned throughout the aviation industry.