Ex-United exec new Hawaiian Air trustee

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Christopher Bowers, who retired yesterday after 30 years with United Airlines, will be named the new trustee to oversee Hawaiian Airlines' bankruptcy tomorrow, sources close to the proceedings said today.

Bowers, 55, had been United Airlines' senior vice president for sales and reservations. Before that, he was senior vice president for sales and marketing.

The sources asked not to be identified because of confidentiality agreements over the search for the trustee.

Bowers will be named Hawaiian's bankruptcy trustee tomorrow by Steven Katzman, U.S. trustee for Southern California, Hawai'i, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Bowers' selection will need to be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

He will be Katzman's second selection for Hawaiian's trustee in the six weeks that Katzman has been U.S. Trustee. Katzman did not return phone calls this morning seeking comment.

John Monahan, who abruptly resigned last week as Hawaiian's trustee, had been on the job only three weeks, but will continue until his successor takes over.

Bowers has two children and lives in Palatine, Ill., near United's Chicago headquarters. He did not respond to telephone calls this morning.

To take the role of Hawaiian Airlines' second trustee in less than a month, Bowers had to be released from a noncompete clause he had with United. He also had to document that he no longer has any holdings or business relationships that would exclude him from the trustee requirement of being a "disinterested person," the sources said.

They said his retirement from United was unrelated to discussions about him taking over as Hawaiian Airlines' trustee.

Hawai'i's largest airline filed for bankruptcy protection in March amid allegations of financial mismanagement directed at the company's chairman and chief executive, John Adams.