Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time

came across this last night and though it was interesting BUT they forgot Steve Wolf and Rakish Gangwal of US Airways...

 

 

MY write up on "Wolfie and The Wog" was that they came into an operation that merged three sucessful airlines together and RUINED all THREE. BUT they were making a comback when the board, urged on by Warren Buffet who was hung out to dry in then US Air stock, paniced and brought in Wolf who had cleaned up and sold, Republic, Flying Tiger and United. first thing this "genius" does is add another fleet type to the company buying Aribus 320's and 319's instead of adding to the existing Boeing 737 series. that gave us more aircraft type, with their resultant fat parts inventory and training costs, than any other airline in the WORLD. it turned out that the main reason Wolf had selected Airbus was he had a French gay lover that worked for Airbus bAND he negotiated a $100k "bonus" for every Airbus delived "because he got the compay such a good deal. (and yes, he was bisexual. it was the cause of his wife filing for divorce) 

 

when Southwest started expanding to the east coast, "The Gang-Wog" paniced and spun off "Metro Air" with the old Peidmont and Allegheny 737-200 gas hog "thunder flufs" as a "low cost response". all it did was rob passengers from the mainline and kill it's primary money making flights out of slot restricted airports like Washington National (I refuse to call it Reagan because naming an airport after THAT union busting fascist is like naming a synagogue after Hitler), Boston-Logan and New York-LaGuardia.

 

eventually when Wolf couldn't pull his usual trick of a merger, this time with also on the thin edge United Airlines which he had sold previously sold to the emplyees, the company ended up in bankruptcy and was eventually taken over by America West. the employees and retirees (like myself) lost their pensions which were thrown into PBGC and their healthcare. meanwhile "Wolfie and the Wog" walked off with multimillon dollar payouts.

 

 

 

then one the OTHER side of airline managers you have....

 

https://www.cnbc.com/id/30391313?slide=3 

 

I met Herb numerous times when I was an investment broker in Houston Texas in the early 1980's. NO executive I have EVER known had more pure FUN running a company. his whole philosopy at Southwest when it came to labor relations was "I'll work with you. you work with me and we'll ALL go to the bank" AND IT WORKED. Southwest employees from the senior captains to the baggage handlers were willing to work for less than other competetors because they knew Herb "wouldn't screw them" and it's STILL the best and most stable airline to work for in the WORLD. last I checked, they have NEVER had a layoff

 

 

I will agree, walls esp about Mozillo. as for "Neutron Jack" Welsh, that is one of the "managers" that started the outsourcing that has seriously damaged this country.

 

Ya RIGHT  I sure hope you don't make market decisions for you or your clients based on political bullshit, KOAJ. you will go broke. Fiorina was a DISASTER at HP and deserves to be on that list.

 

btw, it's NOT CNBC that came up with the list. they just published it.

One thing's for sure, CNBC would NEVER, EVER publish a bad CEO list that included their golden child, Jack Welch.

 

Jack Welch..................

One of the smartest (not necessarily the best) CEOs of all time is the guy who started CNET, then sold it like in March 2000-----like the day the Nas plunged from 5000 to the crapper.

 

And like him or not, Mark Cuban made out like a bandit, too.