*OT*
Article in today's WSJ about one of the guys that was in the running for the CPQ CEO slot...
John
A Hot No. 2 Executive Runs Airline
In the Cross Hairs of Headhunters
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Greg Brenneman, Continental Airlines' No. 2 executive, was at a
Houston shopping mall this summer when a Compaq Computer
Corp. employee spotted him and homed in.
In the world at large, Greg Brenneman isn't a household name or
a famous face. But on the corporate scene these days, he's very
much on the radar -- and in the crosshairs of a crowd of
headhunters who see him as the next hot CEO. At the time of the
mall sighting, Compaq was beseeching him to be its chief
executive -- not only hunting him down in malls but also unearthing
his unlisted phone number and filling his home answering
machine with entreaties. Meantime, Continental's chairman and
CEO, Gordon Bethune, was making daily inquiries about Mr.
Brenneman's plans and was obviously eager to keep him.
"It was a stressful time," says Mr.
Brenneman, who is 37 years old.
After Compaq, he waved off Waste
Management Inc. Calls from headhunters
continued, he says, and today are so
numerous that he only returns messages
from recruiters he knows. "I don't want to
trade a job I enjoy for a title," he says.
Continental's turnaround has burnished the
reputations of several top executives. Mr.
Bethune, 58, receives his share of
top-job-opportunity calls. So does Continental's 40-year-old chief
financial officer, Larry Kellner, among others.
But it is Mr. Brenneman who is on everyone's short list whenever
a big CEO job opens up. "Greg's value is increasing as a hot
commodity, especially since he turned down Compaq," says
Jeffrey Christian, chief executive of the search firm Christian &
Timbers in Cleveland.
Mr. Brenneman is a hands-on manager who thrives on speed,
simplicity and piercing analysis. At times, labor leaders say, he
can be blunt to the point of insensitivity. Several years ago, the
airline decided to close its Greensboro, N.C., base. In a large,
confrontational meeting with employees, Mr. Brenneman
snapped sharply at a pilot who complained he would be forced to
move and sell his just-built house at a loss.
'Very Good Citizen'
The Independent Association of Continental Pilots says there are
still hard feelings over the last round of contract negotiations. "It's
difficult to give Mr. Brenneman the level of respect he wants when
we don't get it back from him," says Capt. John Prater, vice
president of the pilots union. Though he calls Mr. Brenneman "a
very good citizen" and "very much the brains behind our
turnaround," he adds, "I also believe he's still learning how to deal
with unions."
Mr. Brenneman says Continental went through tough times during
its turnaround but his relationship with employees, including
pilots, is excellent.
His negotiating style is tough. At a Houston meeting in late 1994,
with Continental teetering on the brink of a third bankruptcy, eight
major creditors began yelling at him -- at which point he headed
for the door, announcing that he was going home to watch
television.
"They were screaming, 'How can you do that?' " Mr. Brenneman
recalls. "I just told them they were the ones with the problem, not
me. The first step to problem-solving is figuring out who's got the
problem." Continental ended up with breathing room, and within
14 months those creditors were all repaid in full.
Always working at a frenetic pace, Mr. Brenneman is currently
enmeshed in construction of a new terminal space in Newark,
N.J., all the while negotiating international alliances, managing a
rapid expansion to Europe and developing a broad strategy for
Internet ticket selling.
No detail is too small, whether it is new foam cushions for
airplane seats or deciding whether first-class passengers prefer
coffee in cups and saucers or mugs. "He's the only guy I've ever
met who has a great sense of the big picture, but also carries so
much detail you're always at a disadvantage negotiating with
him," says Robert E. Boyle, the executive director of the New
York and New Jersey Port Authority, which manages airports in
the New York metropolitan area.
Another Brenneman trait was in evidence last year when he
decided to lose weight and shed 90 pounds in three months,
dropping from 280 to 190. "He's got a lot of discipline," says Mr.
Bethune. "Greg's a very focused guy who has a way of inserting
some discipline in the process and producing results."
Mr. Brenneman's appetite for results recently took him to Puerto
Rico, where airport authorities were dragging out completion of a
lease for a new $1 million airport club for Continental. In San
Juan, he held a news conference blasting local authorities. Then
he met with the minister of tourism to press his cause and toured
the vacant site with a television camera in tow.
'They May Get Mad'
"Politicians respond to public pressure," he said after his news
conference. "They may get mad at you for putting the pressure on,
but you'll still get the lease."
In a similar situation with the Port Authority, Mr. Brenneman
persuaded Mr. Boyle to keep legal staffers closeted for several
days and nights until a critical contract for an expansion project
was completed. The contract was negotiated quickly.
"Everyone's got an incentive point," Mr. Brenneman says. "For
some people, it's money. For some people, it's power. And some
people just want to go home at night. Port Authority lawyers aren't
motivated by money, aren't motivated by workload. They want to
go home on time."
Mr. Brenneman grew up in Hesston, Kan., a Mennonite town of
3,000 people where his father was president of farm-equipment
maker Hesston Corp. After Harvard Business School, he went to
work for Bain & Co., earning a reputation as a turnaround
specialist who could solve big problems with common-sense
fixes.
"Greg is a very smart, superb strategic thinker," says financier
David Bonderman, who brought Continental out of bankruptcy
reorganization and recruited Mr. Brenneman to the struggling
airline.
Mr. Brenneman leaves the suburban home he shares with his
wife, Rhonda, and three children, at 4:45 a.m. and, after a
health-club workout, arrives downtown by 7:30 a.m. He is a
scratch golfer and since his weight loss has become a runner. He
ran the Boston Marathon wearing a shirt saying, "Outta my way --
I've got a plane to catch." He will run the New York City marathon
on Sunday.
Many employees, including leaders of the pilots union, worry that
either Mr. Brenneman or Mr. Bethune -- or both -- might leave the
company. Continental had 10 CEOs in 15 years, but found
stability with "Gordon and Greg," as they are known around the
airline.
Mr. Bethune says he does what he can to keep Mr. Brenneman
on board, readily delegating to him and trying to share the
spotlight. One Continental director says the board, which has
several times renegotiated contracts for top managers, knows
Mr. Brenneman may be hard to keep. "He will make a very good
CEO someplace," says the director. "I just hope it's not anytime
soon."
For now, Mr. Brenneman says the airline continues to offer
enough challenges. "The next three or four years in this business
will shape it for the next 30 or 40 years," he says. But then it may
be time to move on. "Five years from now," he says, "after our
growth spurt, I'm not sure what challenges there will be."
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