David Neeleman Biography

Neeleman, an American of Dutch descent, was born in Brazil. He attended Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and attended the University of Utah for three years before dropping out. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He was co-founder (with June Morris) of charter airline Morris Air, a low-fare airline. From 1984 to 1988, he was an Executive Vice President of Morris Air. From 1988 to 1994, he was the President of Morris Air Corporation. Morris Air was then acquired by Southwest Airlines for $130 million in 1993. For a brief period, he worked on the Executive Planning Committee at Southwest.

After leaving Southwest, he became the Chief Executive Officer of Open Skies, (a touch screen airline reservation and check-in systems company, acquired by Hewlett Packard in 1999). At the same time, he helped with another upstart airline, Westjet.

As the CEO of JetBlue Airways, his 2002 salary was $200,000 with a bonus of $90,000. Neeleman donates his entire salary to a catastrophy fund which has been established for JetBlue employees who fall on hard times.

On May 10, 2007, David Neeleman was replaced by Dave Barger as CEO of JetBlue. He still retains his position as non-executive Chaiman of the Board. Neeleman will continue in his role as Chairman of the Board of JetBlue.

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