Donald C. Burr (born 1941) is a former

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

executive and the founder and former CEO of now-defunct PEOPLExpress Airlines in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He is a graduate of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and received an M.B.A. degree from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. In 1973, Burr was employed by

Texas International Airlines Texas International Airlines Inc. was a United States airline, known from 1940 until 1947 as Aviation Enterprises, until 1969 as Trans-Texas Airways (TTa), and as Texas International Airlines until 1982, when it merged with Continental Airlines. ...

, a small regional carrier located in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. By 1978, with Burr as

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

, the airline had become profitable. He was then made president but resigned six months later in search of a bigger challenge. In 1981, he launched People Express in a corner of Newark Airport’s north Terminal.

References

External links

Donald C. Burr
o
20th Century Leaders
*http://aolsvc.timeforkids.kol.aol.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101860113,00.html American airline chief executives Airline founders Stanford University alumni Harvard Business School alumni Living people 1941 births {{aviation-bio-stub 20th-century American businesspeople