Ed Bastian

Ed Bastian, Delta Air Lines - Why We Recognized Him:

This guy takes the cake for being compassionate, caring and dedicated to his employees and customers, even going as far as quitting the company over it. After working his way up to Senior Vice President at Delta in 2005, Bastian resigned rather than compromise his principles. Delta was facing difficult financial times, and Bastian made it crystal clear the company should file for bankruptcy protection rather than lay people off. Management disagreed , however, opting for the “bottom line - thinking ” that has ruined a whole lot of capitalism and companies over the last few decades in America, deciding to lay off employees and slash expenses by reducing quality of service, and a whole lot of other bad ideas. So Bastian left. But in a victory for Social Capital and Delta, six months later he returned to the airline to serve as Chief Financial Officer, at the request of then-Delta CEO  Gerald Grinstein, who agreed to put his plan into action.

Mr. Bastain may not have founded Delta Air Lines but he brought it back to life with integrity after his return, restructuring it and returning the company to profitability and respectability by putting his employees and his customers first. And that’s exactly what he has continued to do in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

When the pandemic devastated the airline industry earlier this year, Delta was one of the first to commit to blocking middle seats and to make sure they test 100% of their employees for COVID-19, thanks to  relationships with Mayo Clinic, Quest Diagnostics and  CVS Health.

After offering early retirement and departure packages for flight attendants and frontline employees that 20% of Delta’s workers accepted, they committed to not involuntarily furloughing ANY flight attendants or ground-based frontline employees when the CARES Act expires. And though Bastian said they may have to lay off some pilots, he’s even working to keep them around as long as possible, recently agreeing to delay a decision on pilot furloughs until Nov. 1, 2020.

In response to racial justice and inequity issues, rather than simply sending a memo, Bastian immediately created and instituted a detailed analysis of the racial breakdown of Delta’s employee base and corresponding leadership percentage. AFTER determining a proven inequity in its leadership ranks, Delta created such an incredibly thoughtful and practical process for improvement that we cannot adequately do it justice here (check out the detailed description here https://news.delta.com/ed-bastian-memo-taking-action-racial-justice-diversity).

If all that wasn’t enough to qualify him as a Social Capital CEO, he got rid of all those pesky fees airlines started charging a few years ago to boost profits in sneaky ways.

Oh, one other little thing — Bastian agreed to forgo his salary for six months, giving up about a half-million bucks.

Bastian also joined the Business Roundtable this year, after the group declared its members’ commitment to all stakeholders — employees, customers, communities and owners. His statement after joining summed up so perfectly his authentic, already demonstrated commitment to people.

“We’re excited to be part of a broader movement in American business that shares the same principles as ours — that putting people before profits  is, in fact, in the best interests of our planet, our communities, our employees, and, yes, our shareholders…. By taking care of employees, our theory goes, our people take great care of our customers, who reward us with their loyalty. That, in turn, benefits our owners, who invest more of their capital in the company. And the circle continues.”