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New AirTran CEO Values Being Flexible

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2007

As the fifth of seven children growing up in a blue-collar family in suburban New York, Bob Fornaro learned the art of survival.

"You had to move very quickly," he said.

That could almost be the corporate slogan of AirTran Airways, where the 53-year-old executive was named chief executive officer this month, replacing longtime CEO Joe Leonard, who remains chairman.

Under the two executives' leadership over the past eight years, Orlando-based AirTran has grown into one of the nation's largest discount carriers.

In some ways, Fornaro's rise to the top job mirrors AirTran's moves.

Like a lot of working-class children growing up in the 1950s, he lived a happy existence riding his bicycle, playing games, and scrapping with his siblings and neighborhood buddies.

"We weren't angels," he says. But "I knew one thing. My folks wanted me to do well and to do better than my family."

He got good grades, and he brokered them and a knack for lacrosse into a scholarship at Rutgers University. After that, Fornaro headed for Harvard, getting a master's degree.

"I just kept moving forward. I didn't have a plan," he said.

In these times of stratospheric fuel costs, Fornaro thinks AirTran will need to follow a similar ready-for-anything strategy to thrive.

"We are a very nimble company," said Fornaro, who talked to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. "I think if there is a downturn, we will step through it faster than our competitors."

Cox News Service

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