JetBlue CEO: Education doesn’t equal success

Industry pioneer extols ‘corporate culture of caring’

By: Ryan James Kim
   PRINCETON — The founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways, David Neeleman, described how he built a profitable airline — despite early educational obstacles — at a March 29 luncheon with Princeton University students.
   Wearing a light blue shirt with an unbuttoned collar and gray slacks, Mr. Neeleman did not fit the stereotypical image of a high-powered executive who created a premier discount-fare airline from the largest amount of start-up capital in airline history. A father of seven girls, he seemed more like a neighborhood dad than a multimillionaire.
   In a mandatory SEC filing Feb. 14, Mr. Neeleman held more than 7 million shares of JetBlue stock in a holding company in his name, placing his net worth at more than $100 million.
   "Money isn’t really something that brings you happiness. … Some of the most miserable people I know have the most amount of money," Mr. Neeleman said, shrugging his shoulders emphatically. "I’m just a dumb kid from Utah."
   He described once taking the ACT, a nationally administered standardized test for high school students, and receiving a below-average score on the English section.
   "My counselor called me in and said, ‘Had you just answered C on every question, you actually would have done better by 30 percent,’" he said.
   Mr. Neeleman attributed his low score to attention deficit disorder. ADD is a non-debilitating brain disorder that manifests as a continual pattern of inattention, hyperactivity or both.
   "There have been people that have been successful who haven’t done well in school. There’s not a huge correlation between scholastic smarts and success necessarily," he said.
   After enrolling, Mr. Neeleman dropped out of the University of Utah to pursue a condominium rental business he started. "I figured, ‘Why go to school if I can (rent condos)?’" he said.
   Then, after switching to the airline business for several more years — including a brief stint with Southwest Airlines — Mr. Neeleman decided in 2000 to create JetBlue.
   JetBlue now competes with Southwest in the discount-fare flight market.
   Mr. Neeleman pulled together more than $100 million in capital to jumpstart JetBlue, attracting investors with new ideas — from extensive in-seat entertainment to spacious leg room.
   Seats covered in leather instead of cloth was an especially important detail to Mr. Neeleman, who described once having to sit through a transcontinental flight in another passenger’s urine.
   "As luck would have it, the guy who had done his business there had moved up one seat and had put a plastic thing down underneath, and he was doing it again. It went down into my socks," he said. "Ever since, I’ve had this aversion to cloth seats."
   Mr. Neeleman said his company’s success also was linked to a corporate culture of caring. He cited the JetBlue Teammember Crisis Fund as an example.
   The fund helps JetBlue employees deal financially with unexpected events, like death and natural disasters. Mr. Neeleman said both he and the president of JetBlue donate entire annual salaries of $200,000 to the fund every year.
   "You have to have people who work for you who … feel committed to the company," he said. "The people who work at JetBlue, they’re proud to work at JetBlue."
   With annual revenues of more than $1 billion, JetBlue has managed to earn a net profit for the last three years. Larger airlines like Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have posted losses for the same period.