12 to watch in 2002
Greg Brenneman

Advertiser Staff

Greg Brenneman will be overseeing one of the most visible mergers in state history. The future of about 6,000 employees of both airlines is at stake, along with the health of the state's vital interisland air system.

Brenneman, 40, comes with impressive credentials, including a dramatic turnaround of Continental Airlines, and has won the admiration of industry cognoscenti who say that if anyone can make this deal happen, he's their choice.

But others, who note that a merger is a much different animal than a turnaround, wonder whether the wunderkind has what it takes to pull it off.

He's also expected to be a hands-on presence in Hawai'i's business community, but he'll spend his time going right to the power brokers, not necessarily schmoozing at chamber of commerce breakfasts.

Brenneman appears to have the energy, zeal and savvy needed to push the Aloha-Hawaiian deal forward. If he succeeds, he will have the gratitude of employees, passengers and shareholders, will have reshaped an entire local industry, and will have pulled off one of the biggest business deals in Hawai'i's history.