Hall of Fame

Gil West

Gil West
Gil West

Gil is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company owned by General Motors, Honda, SoftBank, T-Rowe Price, Microsoft and Walmart. Responsible for the overall commercialization and operation of autonomous vehicle business. Responsible for RideShare Business Unit, Delivery Business Unit, Commercial Strategy, Data and Analytics, Project Management, Customer Service, Market Operations, Central Operations and Engineering, New Markets and Infrastructure, Risk Management and Corporate Communications and Marketing. Serve as Accountable Executive for Cruise's Safety Management System-accountable for safety. Deployed fully driverless public rideshare operations in San Francisco and was the first company to acquire the necessary permitting to accomplish this. Deployed driverless delivery pilot with Walmart in Phoenix. Developed, manufactured and currently certifying the first purpose built Level 4 autonomous vehicle ever certified by the NHTSA.

For almost 12 years, Gil formerly held the position of Chief Operating Officer and Sr. Executive Vice President, Chair Delta Holdings responsible for Delta's worldwide operations at 366 airports in 66 countries, 1,300 aircraft, 2M operations/year, 200M customers/year, 70,000+ Delta and 22,000 subsidiary employees. Responsibilities included Airport Customer Services & Operations, In-flight Services (Flight Attendants and Catering), Flight Operations (Pilots), TechOps (Maintenance & Engineering), Operations Control Center, Operations Analytics & Performance, Supply Chain Management, Fleet (aircraft strategy & acquisition), Corporate Safety Security & Compliance, Regional Operations, Cargo and Information Technology.

Led ancillary businesses of -$6B revenues including Delta Private Jets, Endeavor Airlines, Delta Connection, Delta Material Services, Delta MRO, Delta Flight Products, Delta Global Services and Cargo. Lead venture capital investments/start up activity.

Drove innovation through strategic technology investments of $900M annually.

Achieved industry leading customer service (5X increase in NPS), operational performance (moved from #7 to # I in DOT rankings) and profitability (from bankruptcy emergence to $6B pretax). International equity investments/joint ventures/alliances in Europe, Latin/Central America and Pacific region.

Successfully led merger integration with Northwest Airlines.

Achieved record earnings for the industry with EPS growth of 15%+ YOY with 2"d best performing stock in S&P 500.Achieved 25%+ ROIC, $8B operating cash flow and $SB free cash flow used to strengthen balance sheet through debt reduction, return cash to shareholders and reinvest in business. Increased unit revenue premium verses industry (120% domestic, 110% system) through differentiation of industry leading operational performance, customer service and product segmentation.

Top line growth driven by disciplined capacity growth plus pricing improvements. Non-fuel unit cost held to less than half of GDP growth rate.

Merged Delta Private Jets with Wheels Up and Delta Global Services with UNIFI.

Founded Delta Flight Products and Delta Material Services.

Awards

  • Fortune's Magazine (multi-year winner) Airline of the Year
  • Fortune's Most Admired Companies (#31)
  • Air Transport World Airline of the Year (first domestic winner in 10 years)
  • Business Travel News (multi-year winner)
  • Glassdoor and Fortune's Best Companies to Work for and Best Companies for Diversity

Board of Director

  • Virgin Galactic - Space tourism company with spaceship design and manufacturing company. Safety and Audit Committee.
  • Genesis Park Acquisition Corporation - Aviation Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation. Acquired RedWire, a space engineering and manufacturing company taking it public. Led Compensation Committee.
  • Forward Air - Expedited ground transportation and logistics company. Publicly traded. Governance and Compensation Committee.
  • Wheels Up - Private jet company. Privately held.
  • Monroe Energy - Delta's wholly owned subsidiary oil refinery located in Philadelphia, PA. Chair Operations Committee.
  • American Cancer Society - Non-profit organization leading the fight against cancer. Finance Committee. Chair Revenue & Marketing Committee.
  • Business Leaders of Michigan - CEOs of Michigan based companies improving Michigan's business climate.
  • Schneller LLC Aviation - Rail and architectural interiors product manufacturing and service company.
  • Aircraft Repair Technologies - Aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul company and parts distribution.

Advisory Boards

LYFT Autonomous Advisory Board, AeroMexico Airlines, AirFrance/KLM Airlines, Virgin Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, LATAM Airlines, GOL Airlines, Engage (Georgia Tech University venture capital fund), North Carolina State University and Western Carolina University.

Education

  • Masters Business Administration, National University, San Diego, California, 1994
  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1984
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