NWA's new leadership looks to the future

By Joe Hoshaw Jr. & Bill Farmer

The pending changes at the top of Northwest Airlines mark the culmination of a succession plan that had been more than two years in the making.

With Richard Anderson and Douglas Steenland moving up to the positions of chief executive officer and president, respectively, on April 1, the company's board of directors has in effect divided the roles of John Dasburg, who held both titles.

The net result was a virtually seamless transition that left Anderson, 46, and Steenland, 49, in a position to share leadership of the Minneapolis-based airline, which employs 55,000 people worldwide and handles nearly 75% of the passenger traffic at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, one of its three major domestic hubs.

So, even though Dasburg's departure will come sooner than some had expected, the board of directors' quick move to elevate both Anderson and Steenland simultaneously was no surprise.

"We've always had a collaborative approach to managing the business here, particularly the strategic decisions," said Anderson, who formerly served as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Steenland's previous title was executive vice president and chief corporate officer. He and Anderson have worked together in upper management at Northwest for nearly a decade now. Anderson joined the company in 1990 as vice president and deputy general counsel. Steenland came on board in 1991 as vice president and deputy general counsel.

"I think one of the keys is that this is going to be a very orderly succession," Steenland said. "The fact that Richard and I have been here for years and have been actively involved in helping to formulate all of the company's strategy plans means that, at the strategic level, it is going to be business as usual."

According to Chairman Gary Wilson, picking the right person or people to lead the company is the paramount duty of the board of directors. He appeared confident that the day-to-day operation of the company had been placed in the best hands - all four of them.

"The most important duty of a board of directors is to develop the right succession plan and to implement it at the appropriate time," Wilson said. "Succession planning has been a major priority at Northwest for several years. We were fortunate to identify these two outstanding individuals at Northwest ready to assume the top positions.

"Richard Anderson is an exceptional airline executive with broad experience in all aspects of our business. He deserves credit for Northwest's strong operating performance and No. 1 on-time record among major network carriers. He has also been the driving force behind the development of the new Detroit terminal and the expansion of Northwest's major hub operations worldwide."

Wilson added "Doug Steenland is also a superb executive with complementary skills and experience who played the key role in forging Northwest's ground-breaking alliance with Continental and in enhancing our important strategic relationship with KLM. Together, Richard and Doug will be an outstanding team."

Industry observers and analysts expect the management change to produce a shift in the company's leadership style. Anderson, viewed by most as open and personable, is noted for taking time to chat with workers in search of new ideas. He also prefers riding in the cockpit rather than in Business Class when flying so he can talk with the pilots and flight attendants.

"There will be a change in the sense that you will have a very active CEO and a very active president," Anderson vowed. "We will redouble our efforts in behalf of our customers and our employees. They didn't see a lot of me as COO, but they'll see a lot of me as CEO."

Steenland said he felt the change was indicative of a move to a new generation of leadership at Northwest. "And I think it is going to bring about a particularly strong focus on our customers and our employees," he said.

Anderson amplified those thoughts when asked to discuss what the company's focus would be in the future.

"Customers, customers, customers," he said. "Taking care of customers at the airline - and the employees. We really want to work to improve the morale of the employees because, if the employees are taken care of, they'll take good care of our customers.

"And the future ... depends on our ability to grow this airline, to grow its revenue base and to grow its passenger base - and to do a better job than our much larger competitors in providing high-quality passenger service," Anderson said.

The most critical issue Anderson and Steenland will face in the immediate future is in finding a way resolve the ongoing dispute with its airline mechanics and custodians represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.

Negotiations between the two sides have been deadlocked for some time, and are currently in a 30-day "cooling off" period imposed by federal mediators.

Typically the workers would have the right to strike after the cooling off period expires in mid-March, though President George W. Bush has said he would then set up a presidential emergency board that would delay a potential strike until at least mid May.

In an interview with Reuters, Steve MacFarlane, president of the Northwest AMFA local, seemed encouraged by what the new Northwest leadership brings to the table in personal style, referring to Anderson as "very open," "honest" and "personable."

Steenland noted that the airline has reached agreements with its pilots, its airport employees at the ticket counter and at the ramps, as well as the reservations employees and the flight attendants.

"The mechanics and the technicians are really the last group that we are dealing with here," he said, "and, hopefully, within the context of this 30-day cooling-off period, we can find resolution."

Still, with the mechanics contract not settled, the specter of more mergers in the industry, and the opening of the new midfield terminal at Metro, the question was posed to Anderson whether this was a good time for such a major management change.

"Can you ever remember a calm time in the airline business?" he said, laughing.

Before joining Northwest, Anderson spent three years at Continental Airlines in legal affairs. He serves on the board of Mesaba Aviation, the Board of Overseers of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, the board of Minnesota Life Insurance Co., and the Minneapolis Downtown Council. He is also a trustee for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn.

Steenland joined Northwest in 1991 as vice president and deputy general counsel and became senior vice president and general counsel in 1994. In 1999, he was named executive vice president and chief corporate officer with responsibility for a wide range of functions, including domestic and international airline alliances, government affairs, legal affairs, labor relations, and corporate communications. He is also general counsel.

Before joining Northwest Steenland was a senior partner with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, a Washington, D.C., law firm known for its work in transportation and government relations matters. Earlier in his career, he was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Steenland serves on the Board of Mesaba Aviation, the Board of Express Airlines, Inc. and the Board of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra.

Newly named CEO Richard Anderson (left) and newly appointed President Douglas Steenland.

The opening of Metro's new terminal is one of the top items on the agenda of the airline's new leadership. Photo by Dave Chapman

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