AZ Travels the World
Sep 5, 04, 1:15 pm
From today's Arizona Republic (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0905execprofile05.html) business section.
Edited to add: Note the bolded reference to the "frequent flyer website." Hmmm.
AmWest's highest-ranking female official was born to fly
Joette Schmidt doesn't reach for the latest business bestseller when she needs a little inspiration on leadership.
The America West Airlines executive goes way back in time, to Abraham Lincoln's presidency. She devours books on the 16th president and lends out her dog-eared copy of Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times.
"That was an unbelievable time to be in a leadership role," Schmidt said.
Schmidt is vice president of sales, America West's highest-profile female executive and one of just four women in the officer ranks. She has had her own share of challenges since joining America West in 1996.
The toughest came four years ago, when she was promoted to the newly created position of vice president of customers in the midst of an operational meltdown at the Tempe-based airline.
Rampant flight delays and cancellations were driving passengers away. She considers her team's role in helping to fix the problems and win back passengers a highlight of her career.
"It was very hard, I don't want to sugarcoat it, but it was very fulfilling," she said.
Schmidt, who later added in-flight services to her duties and launched the airline's innovative on-board food sales, is now starting a new challenge at America West.
She recently moved to the sales side of the business, swapping jobs with longtime colleague Ron Cole, the former vice president of sales.
Schmidt didn't seek the change and says she had plenty left on her old to-do list. She says she loved talking to many of America West's frequent fliers, a couple of whom lamented her job switch on a frequent-flier Web site.
America West's top executives proposed the switch as part of broader management changes designed to keep longtime managers energized and develop new ones, and Schmidt and Cole signed on.
"I love change," she said.
Schmidt now oversees the airline's sales programs, including corporate travel and travel agencies. It's an area with stiff competition, immense change and sometimes-testy relations, given airline commission cuts and a big push for online bookings.
The new job takes her back to her first love in the industry. Schmidt likes nothing more than courting new customers, even though it can take more than a year to cement a business travel deal with a big corporation.
"When you close that sale, it's just an incredible feeling," she said.
Jeffrey Katz, chief executive officer of online travel agency Orbitz, worked with Schmidt at American Airlines and said she is great with customers and employees alike.
"Joette is a class act all around," he said. "She has a good business mind and she's got sort of a compassion that makes everybody almost want to help her."
Schmidt, who comes across as warm, polished and pleasant, admits to a softer style and says, "I don't think you have to be a jerk to get results."
But, she quickly adds, some people have mistaken her niceness as a weakness.
"I have been underestimated," she said.
America West's flight attendants union, whose relationship with management was so rocky workers were on the verge of striking five years ago, has nothing but good things to say about Schmidt's two-year tenure in in-flight services.
Bill Lehman, vice president of the local council of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said she regularly listened to flight attendants' concerns. After they complained about a Palm Pilot-type device that was going to be used for the in-flight food sales, it was jettisoned, he said.
"We got so much accomplished under her leadership that I don't believe would have been done had she not been there," Lehman said.
Schmidt, who has been in the industry 24 years, grew up in the airline business. Her father was an airline mechanic for 42years and his uniform badges and anniversary letters are framed in her office. It was a gift for her father, but he was too modest to put it up in his house.
Right next to the display is a framed certificate from American Airlines' Sky Cradle Club to mark her first flight - at 9 weeks old.
"I was destined to be in this business," she said.
Profile: Joette Schmidt
Who: Vice president of sales, America West Airlines.
Age: 46.
Career path: Joined America West as senior director of passenger sales in 1996 after eight years with American Airlines.Promoted to vice president, customers, in June 2000 and added in-flight services in February 2002. Named to current position in May.
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration, University of Phoenix.
Community service: Chairman of the board of the Arizona Humane Society and a board member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce and America West's education foundation.
Personal interests: Gardening, running, reading, entertaining.
Family: Partner Kent Derdivanis, a sports broadcaster.
Edited to add: Note the bolded reference to the "frequent flyer website." Hmmm.
AmWest's highest-ranking female official was born to fly
Joette Schmidt doesn't reach for the latest business bestseller when she needs a little inspiration on leadership.
The America West Airlines executive goes way back in time, to Abraham Lincoln's presidency. She devours books on the 16th president and lends out her dog-eared copy of Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times.
"That was an unbelievable time to be in a leadership role," Schmidt said.
Schmidt is vice president of sales, America West's highest-profile female executive and one of just four women in the officer ranks. She has had her own share of challenges since joining America West in 1996.
The toughest came four years ago, when she was promoted to the newly created position of vice president of customers in the midst of an operational meltdown at the Tempe-based airline.
Rampant flight delays and cancellations were driving passengers away. She considers her team's role in helping to fix the problems and win back passengers a highlight of her career.
"It was very hard, I don't want to sugarcoat it, but it was very fulfilling," she said.
Schmidt, who later added in-flight services to her duties and launched the airline's innovative on-board food sales, is now starting a new challenge at America West.
She recently moved to the sales side of the business, swapping jobs with longtime colleague Ron Cole, the former vice president of sales.
Schmidt didn't seek the change and says she had plenty left on her old to-do list. She says she loved talking to many of America West's frequent fliers, a couple of whom lamented her job switch on a frequent-flier Web site.
America West's top executives proposed the switch as part of broader management changes designed to keep longtime managers energized and develop new ones, and Schmidt and Cole signed on.
"I love change," she said.
Schmidt now oversees the airline's sales programs, including corporate travel and travel agencies. It's an area with stiff competition, immense change and sometimes-testy relations, given airline commission cuts and a big push for online bookings.
The new job takes her back to her first love in the industry. Schmidt likes nothing more than courting new customers, even though it can take more than a year to cement a business travel deal with a big corporation.
"When you close that sale, it's just an incredible feeling," she said.
Jeffrey Katz, chief executive officer of online travel agency Orbitz, worked with Schmidt at American Airlines and said she is great with customers and employees alike.
"Joette is a class act all around," he said. "She has a good business mind and she's got sort of a compassion that makes everybody almost want to help her."
Schmidt, who comes across as warm, polished and pleasant, admits to a softer style and says, "I don't think you have to be a jerk to get results."
But, she quickly adds, some people have mistaken her niceness as a weakness.
"I have been underestimated," she said.
America West's flight attendants union, whose relationship with management was so rocky workers were on the verge of striking five years ago, has nothing but good things to say about Schmidt's two-year tenure in in-flight services.
Bill Lehman, vice president of the local council of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said she regularly listened to flight attendants' concerns. After they complained about a Palm Pilot-type device that was going to be used for the in-flight food sales, it was jettisoned, he said.
"We got so much accomplished under her leadership that I don't believe would have been done had she not been there," Lehman said.
Schmidt, who has been in the industry 24 years, grew up in the airline business. Her father was an airline mechanic for 42years and his uniform badges and anniversary letters are framed in her office. It was a gift for her father, but he was too modest to put it up in his house.
Right next to the display is a framed certificate from American Airlines' Sky Cradle Club to mark her first flight - at 9 weeks old.
"I was destined to be in this business," she said.
Profile: Joette Schmidt
Who: Vice president of sales, America West Airlines.
Age: 46.
Career path: Joined America West as senior director of passenger sales in 1996 after eight years with American Airlines.Promoted to vice president, customers, in June 2000 and added in-flight services in February 2002. Named to current position in May.
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration, University of Phoenix.
Community service: Chairman of the board of the Arizona Humane Society and a board member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce and America West's education foundation.
Personal interests: Gardening, running, reading, entertaining.
Family: Partner Kent Derdivanis, a sports broadcaster.