Hawaiian trustee selected
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Christopher Bowers, who retired Monday after 30 years with United Airlines, will be named the new trustee to oversee Hawaiian Airlines' bankruptcy today, sources close to the proceedings said yesterday.
Bowers, 55, had been United Airlines' senior vice president for sales and reservations. Before that, he was senior vice president for sales and marketing.
BOWERS
The sources asked not to be identified because of confidentiality agreements over the search for the trustee.
Hawaiian filed for bankruptcy protection in March amid allegations of financial mismanagement directed at the company's chairman and chief executive, John Adams.
One of Bowers' major responsibilities will be coming up with a restructuring plan to get Hawai'i's largest airline out of bankruptcy. Among other things, the airline hopes to lower costs by renegotiating its aircraft leases.
Bowers will be named Hawaiian's bankruptcy trustee by Steven Katzman, U.S. trustee for Southern California, Hawai'i, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. His selection must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.
Bowers will be Katzman's second selection for Hawaiian's trustee. 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 return telephone messages left at his home.
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.
The search had included up to 50 names being considered by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and Boeing Capital Corp., one of the companies that leases planes to Hawaiian and is a major creditor.
One particular problem was finding a candidate who met the requirement of a "disinterested person," who, for example, has no stock interests in either Hawaiian or its competitors, Katzman said last week.
Some of the finalists from the previous search were no longer candidates and new people with airline experience became interested, he said.
"There's no big secret that there's been a lot of upheaval in the airline industry," Katzman said at the time. "A lot of people want to get settled."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
