Gorman In, Koshak Out

A shake-up at Delta Air Lines of its operations executives has a former Northwest Airline executive Stephen Gorman replacing Joe Kolshak. Gorman who was once in charge of operation and maintenance at Northwest Airlines comes to Delta from Greyhound Lines. Kolshak, 50, is retiring after 20 years at Delta, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The move came a day after Delta said it had opted not to hire a chief financial officer to take over part of President Ed Bastian's duties as the No. 2 executive and CFO.

These changes come after Delta's board of directors picked former Northwest Chief Executive Richard Anderson as Delta's CEO, three months ago, bypassing Bastian and another candidate. Gorman, 52, the new executive vice president will be in charge of Delta's flight operations, maintenance, airport customer service and Delta Global Services, a subsidiary that provides various passenger and aircraft-related services.

"His experience, knowledge of the airline industry and ability to deliver superior results make him an ideal leader to build on the extraordinary operational performance Delta people deliver every day," said Delta officials.

Gorman, who worked at Northwest from 1996 to 2001, the same time as Anderson was working his way up at the Minneapolis-based carrier. Anderson led Northwest as their CEO from 2001 to 2004.

After leaving Northwest, Gorman went to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts' North American division, then an effort to turnaround Greyhound Lines Gorman took the CEO seat there for four years. Kolshak retires January 1, and has relinquished his daily duties immediately, according to Delta.

"Joe has made significant contributions to Delta, and we appreciate his dedication to the company," Anderson said. "He agreed to continue in his role until we completed a search for his replacement, and we are pleased Steve is ready to join the Delta team."

Former Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein chose Kolshak as his operations chief in 2004. Kolshak, who joined Delta as a pilot, once headed the company's investor relations department.

FMI: www.delta.com, http://www.nwa.com/corpinfo/