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David Neeleman

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David G. Neeleman (born October 16, 1959) is the founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways.

Neeleman, an American of Dutch descent, was born in Brazil. He attended Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and attended the University of Utah for three years before dropping out. He did his Mormon missionary work in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.

He was co-founder (with June Morris) of charter airline Morris Air, a low-fare airline. From 1984 to 1988, he was an Executive Vice President of Morris Air. From 1988 to 1994, he was the President of Morris Air Corporation. Morris Air was then acquired by Southwest Airlines for $130 million in 1993. For a brief period, he worked on the Executive Planning Committee at Southwest.

After leaving Southwest, he co-founded WestJet in 1996. He was concurrently the Chief Executive Officer of Open Skies, (a touch screen airline reservation and check-in systems company, acquired by Hewlett Packard in 1999).

In 2000, he disclosed to CNN that he has Adult attention-deficit disorder. As the CEO of JetBlue Airways, his 2002 salary was $200,000 with a bonus of $90,000.

David lives with his wife Vicki and their nine children in New Canaan, Connecticut. [1]