Gerald ("Jerry") Grinstein (born 1932) is an American businessman, the former

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...

. He was CEO of

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the e ...

from 1985 to 1995, and joined Delta's board of directors in 1987. He became CEO of Delta in 2004, a time of financial crisis for the airline. After overseeing the firm's survival through

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

and implementing a restructuring program, he retired as CEO in 2007.

Education

Grinstein received a BA from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1954 and a JD from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1957.

Business career

Burlington Northern Railroad

From 1985 to 1995 Grinstein was CEO of

(BN). In this position he helped form the corporate entity that resulted in BN's merger which formed the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. While at the helm of BN, Grinstein adopted a new paint scheme for the railroad's executive office car train. Named for its creator, "Grinstein Green" was applied to the train's F-units along with a cream colored stripe down the middle. This paint scheme was later applied to the railroad's last order for locomotives before the merger, the EMD

SD70MAC The EMD SD70 is a series of diesel-electric locomotives produced by the US company Electro-Motive Diesel in response to the GE Dash 9-44CW. Production commenced in late 1992 and since then over 5,700 units have been produced; most of these are t ...

. Even today, this paint scheme is simply referred to as either "Grinstein" or "Executive" paint and many of the SD70MACs on the roster still sport this scheme. Grinstein received the

Railroader of the Year Railroader of the Year is an annual award presented to a North American railroad industry worker by trade journal ''Railway Age''. The award was first presented in 1964 by trade journal ''Modern Railroads'' and has continued through the magazine ac ...

award in 1996.

Delta Air Lines

When

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and N ...

and Delta Air Lines, Inc. of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

merged in 1987, Grinstein, CEO of Western since 1985, was appointed to Delta's Board of Directors and has remained on the board since then. He took over as CEO in 2004, when Delta was in a deep financial crisis, after CEO Leo F. Mullin stepped down amid a controversy over executive retirement and cash bonus plans that were deemed excessive. Grinstein embarked on a number of cost-cutting measures, including a major out-of-court restructuring of the company's long term debt and outsourcing of some heavy aircraft maintenance and ramp handling operations. In negotiations with

ALPA Alpa was formerly a Switzerland, Swiss camera design company and manufacturer of 135 film, 35 mm Single-lens reflex camera, SLR cameras. The current owners bought the company name after bankruptcy of the original company and the company exists ...

, the Delta pilots' union, he secured deep concessions in order to help the company stave off bankruptcy. Grinstein also set about regaining the trust and confidence of Delta's employees. He granted himself an annual salary of $450,000 with no bonuses or stock options, well below the multimillion-dollar compensation packages accepted by Mullin and his top executives at a time when Delta was losing billions of dollars. Grinstein appointed new executives to Delta who assisted in the company's survival despite the airline's precarious financial position. He sought to maintain communication with the Delta Board Council and with representatives of frontline employees.

Bankruptcy and restructuring

Although these initiatives were largely successful, upward pressure on fuel prices and fierce competition from low-cost carriers continued to keep Delta perilously close to bankruptcy.

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

resulted in a dramatic spike in jet fuel prices in

, which houses Delta's largest hub operation. Delta, which had previously sold its fuel hedges in a move to raise cash, was forced into an untenable cash position. On September 14, 2005, Delta and its subsidiaries filed a petition for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Delta's total debt was approximately $23.8 billion. During Delta's bankruptcy, Grinstein and his management team accelerated the restructuring process that they had started in 2004. Delta shed non-performing assets, slashed the mainline fleet from nine models to five, and shed thousands of jobs. By 2007, Delta's mainline operation employed approximately 47,000, down from a high of 78,000 in 2001. Grinstein negotiated a second concessionary agreement from ALPA, imposed a second round of paycuts on nonunion employees, and froze the nonunion employee pension plan. He reduced his own pay by 25%, to approximately $325,000 per year. Grinstein also oversaw a major restructuring of Delta's network footprint, closing the airline's Dallas–Fort Worth hub and cutting domestic flight schedules across the remaining hubs in an effort to redeploy aircraft and personnel to more profitable international markets. Delta entered more than 50 new international markets between 2005 and 2007 and since its merger with

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

in 2008 has become the world's largest carrier. In November 2006,

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in History of aviation in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called ...

launched an unsolicited hostile takeover bid for Delta, which Grinstein and his executive team led by

Jim Whitehurst James Moon Whitehurst is an American business executive. He was the President at IBM and chair of the board at Red Hat, and previously Chief Executive Officer at Red Hat and Chief Operating Officer at Delta Air Lines. Prior to working at Delt ...

and Edward Bastian defeated by supporting the employee-led "Keep Delta My Delta" campaign.

Retirement

Grinstein retired in the summer of 2007, allocating his bankruptcy emergence stock grants to establish a scholarship fund for Delta employees and their children and a hardship fund for Delta families. He was succeeded by

Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson (August 8, 1926 – August 31, 2017) was an American film and television actor. Among his best-known roles was his portrayal of Oscar Goldman, the boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in b ...

, a former Northwest Airlines executive. Grinstein and his wife Carolyn live in

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

.William Ruckelshaus, Gerald Grinstein celebrate 80th birthdays with salmon-fishing trip , The Seattle Times
Retrieved 2018-12-12.

References

External links

Gerald Grinstein Corporate Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grinstein, Gerald Businesspeople from Seattle 20th-century American railroad executives Living people 1932 births Delta Air Lines people American airline chief executives Harvard Law School alumni Yale University alumni People from Medina, Washington