Oscar Munoz served as CEO and chairman of United Airlines, previously holding several executive leadership positions at CSX, AT&T, US West, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola. He serves on the board of directors of Salesforce, CBRE, Televisa Univision, and Archer Aviation; is a trustee of the University of Southern California as well as of the Brookings Institution; and is an independent trustee for Fidelity. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Southern California and an MBA from Pepperdine. To date, he remains the only person of Hispanic heritage to run a US airline.

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  • Listen, Learn, AND THEN Lead… The purpose of the listening tour was to hear from people at the ground level, listen, learn, and then make decisions.
  • I love the simplicity in the question to his team, “Hey, what are the 10 dumbest rules we’ve put in place?” And then changing them… This is something we all should think about periodically.
  • The father-daughter bond Oscar has with his daughter, Jessica. The traits he sees in her that are also in him are “tenacity and refusal to give in no matter what.”
  • Before Oscar became CEO, the culture was based on a “cost-cutting, rule-obsessed, disciplinary-heavy culture.”
  • Listening Tour – In 2015, After becoming CEO of United Airlines, Munoz embarked on a “listening tour” of the company, meeting with disgruntled employees around the United States and discussing their concerns. While this phase was intended to last for the first 90 days of the job, Oscar was hospitalized after having a heart attack in October 2015, 38 days into the job.
  • In 2015, Oscar was one of two Hispanic CEOs in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 list. Munoz has been named among the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine. In March 2017, Oscar was named “Communicator of the Year for 2017” by PRWeek.
  • How to be both a great dad and a great CEO?
    • “Model the right behavior for your kids.”
  • Advice: Swing easy. Be yourself.
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