Adams in control at airline since '96
| • | Hawaiian Airlines is hit with additional setbacks |
| • | Trading of airline stock to resume |
Advertiser Staff
John W. Adams, chairman and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines, has controlled the company since the mid-1990s.
Adams, a New York City resident, paid $20 million for 68 percent of Hawaiian in 1996, soon after the company had emerged from an earlier Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He bought his shares of Hawaiian through Airline Investors Partnership, a Delaware company formed to take control of the airline.
A frequent investor in financially distressed companies, Adams has controlled firms including automobile parts manufacturer Harvard Industries and health systems management company Regency Health Services. He also owns Smith Management LLC, a private investment firm in New York City.
During Adams' tenure at Hawaiian, the company replaced its aging fleet of McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 jets with new Boeing planes, leased from the manufacturer. Hawaiian's inability to make its lease payments are at the heart of the company's petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Hawaiian paid Adams a $600,000 base salary last year, plus a $2 million bonus payment, and $900,000 in consulting fees to one of his firms.
Hawaiian also bought back $25 million worth of its stock last year, resulting in payments of $17 million to Adams' Airline Investors Partnership.
Adams was one of the architects of a proposed merger between Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines. But the deal fell through in early 2002 after Aloha refused to accept terms that would have left Adams with substantial control over the combined company's operations.
Shortly afterward, Adams temporarily took control of day-to-day operations at Hawaiian when President Paul Casey resigned. In December, Adams handed the presidency to former British Airways executive Mark Dunkerley, but retained his position as chairman and chief executive officer.
