Donald J. Carty

Donald J. Carty, OC (born 1946) is a Canadian/American businessman who serves as chairman of Virgin America and Porter Airlines. In addition to these chairmanships, Mr. Carty is also a director of Dell, Hawaiian Airlines, Sears, CHC Helicopter and Barrick Gold. He was previously chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, from 1998 to 2003. Carty is chairman of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University and of the Executive Board of the SMU Cox School of Business, and a member of the board of directors of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. In January 2007, Carty became the Vice Chairman and chief financial officer of Dell. On June 13, 2008, Carty retired from day-to-day operations, but stayed on as Vice Chairman.

Biography

Born in Toronto, Canada on July 23, 1946, Carty attended Queen's University and Harvard Business School. He worked for Air Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway before joining American, although he served as CEO for CP Air from 1985 to 1987. At American, he served as controller, and later as executive vice president for finance and planning under CEO Robert Crandall.

In April 2003, in the long wake of the September 11 attacks and facing an industry beset by terrorism and hard times, Carty and his executive board were forced to strike a cost-cutting deal with American's labor unions, intended to mitigate AMR's upcoming $1 billion first-quarter loss. The deal—the largest corporate restructuring outside of bankruptcy in American history—almost unraveled several days later, when unions learned that AMR executives were keeping $41 million in retention bonuses. Although many other airlines had similar retention bonus arrangements,^[1] several AMR board members—most notably University of Oklahoma president David L. Boren--called for Carty's resignation.

Carty stepped down on April 24, 2003. He was replaced as CEO by Gerard Arpey, and as chairman by Edward A. Brennan.

Carty was appointed as Chairman of Virgin America on February 6, 2006.^[2] On February 2 of that year, Toronto-based Porter Airlines, in the process of starting up a small regional service out of the downtown Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, announced that Carty would simultaneously serve as its chairman. He is also a director of Sears, CHC Helicopter, Barrick Gold, and Dell, becoming the latter's chief financial officer on 1 January 2007.^[3] On May 19, 2008, Dell announced that Carty, hired to help lead the computer maker's successful turnaround, would step down and be replaced by longtime General Electric executive Brian Gladden on June 13. Dell said that Carty would stay on as Vice Chairman.^[4]

In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

References

1. ^ "Delta backs off on top-tier bonuses", USA Today, August 12, 2003.
2. ^ "Virgin America Appoints Donald J. Carty Chairman of its Board of Directors," Virgin America press release, February 6, 2006.
3. ^ Dell Names Carty Finance Chief to Replace Schneider (Update2). Bloomberg. Retrieved on 19 December 2006.
4. ^ Dell CFO Carty resigns, GE veteran to replace him, Associated Press, May 19, 2008.

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Name	Carty, Donald J.
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Date of birth	1946
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