David Barger

David Barger
David Barger after a October 2010 presentation in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Born	David J. Barger 1958 (age 52–53)
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	President and CEO of JetBlue
Salary	US$591,667 + US$888,455 other compensation (2009)
Spouse	Eliza A. Arpey

David J. Barger (born 1958) is the current President and the Chief Executive Officer of JetBlue Airways.He was part of JetBlue's founding team and is on the corporation's board of directors.

Career

Dave Barger's interest in airlines came from his father, who was a United Airlines pilot for 37 years. From 1982 to 1988, Barger served in a number of positions with New York Air, such as the Director of Stations. In 1992 he joined with Continental Airlines and held various management positions including Vice President of Continental's Newark Liberty International Airport hub.

Barger was part of the JetBlue Airways founding team in 1998, and served as the Chief Operating Officer for Jet Blue until March 2007. During the airline's first months of operation, when a JetBlue plane was forced to stop en route so that a diabetic passenger could receive emergency care, Barger reportedly personally apologized to each passenger for the delay, and offered a free flight as compensation. Following a February 2007 incident in which the airline was forced to cancel nearly 1,700 flights due to winter storms, JetBlue's board of directors replaced Chief Executive Officer David Neeleman. Barger, then 49, became JetBlue's new Chief Executive Officer on May 10, 2007.Neeleman, the company's largest individual investor, became a nonexecutive chairman as a result of the change.On June 1, 2009, Barger became the president of JetBlue.

Charitable work

Barger is on both the executive committee and the board of governors of the Flight Safety Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the field of air safety.[10] In 2007, Barger gave $4.5 million USD to the Barger Leadership Institute in the Organizational Studies Program in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan.

(source:wikipedia)