Douglas Steenland

Douglas M. Steenland (born September 17, 1951)^[1] is an American former corporate attorney and former airline executive. He had a 17-year career at Northwest Airlines, where he held numerous executive roles, including as president from 2001 through 2008,^[2] and president and CEO of Northwest from October 2004 until its merger with Delta Air Lines in October 2008.^[3] Since then he has served on a number of boards of directors, and as an advisor to the Blackstone Group.

Education

Steenland received a B.A. in history from Calvin College^[1] and a J.D. from the National Law Center at George Washington University.^[1][2]

Career

Early career

Following law school, Steenland worked for two years at the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation.^[2] He then joined the Washington, D.C. law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand^{[broken anchor]} (now part of DLA Piper), where his focus included work for airlines regarding regulations, acquisitions, and new overseas markets.^[2] He rose to become a senior partner at the firm.^[1]

Northwest Airlines

After his team at the law firm represented Northwest Airlines during a leveraged buyout and other matters from 1989 to 1991, Steenland was hired by the airline as vice president/deputy general counsel in 1991.^[2] He was promoted to senior vice president/general counsel in 1994, and to executive vice president/general counsel and alliances in 1998.^[2] He was subsequently promoted to executive vice president/chief corporate officer in 1999 and to president and board member in 2001.^[2]

From 2004 to 2008 he was president and Chief executive officer of Northwest Airlines.^[3] He led the airline through a period marked by severe economic difficulties for U.S. airlines, caused by factors such as the aftereffects of 9/11 and the SARS epidemic, the 2008 financial crisis, rising fuel prices, and the Iraq War.^[4][5]

In 2008, Steenland led Northwest into a merger with Delta Air Lines.^[6] The merger was completed in October 2008; at that time Steenland retired from Northwest and joined the board of directors of the merged company, Delta,^[7] and remained on its board till 2011.^[8]

Additional positions

Steenland was chairman of the Air Transport Association from January 2008 to December 2009.^[9][10]

He was appointed to the board of directors of International Lease Finance Corporation in September 2009, and was made non-executive chairman in December 2009,^[11][12] serving in that role until June 2012.^[13] In 2010, he was appointed the non-executive chairman of Performance Food Group,^[14] a position he held until February 2019.^[15] In August 2011, he was appointed vice chairman of Travelport's board of directors,^[16] and in May 2013 he was promoted to chairman,^[17] a position he held until the company's acquisition by private equity investors in 2019.^[18]

He was appointed to the board of directors of AIG in June 2009.^[19] and has been non-executive chairman of the company since July 2015.^[20][21] He has been on the board of directors of Hilton Worldwide since September 2009.^[22][23][24] He has been a senior advisor at the Blackstone Group since 2009.^[25][26][27]

He is a lifetime director on the board of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[28]

Personal life

Steenland is married and has two children.^[29]