ByDennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Paul Casey, left, shakes Bruce Nobles' hand yesterday after
the CEO change was announced, as Hawaiian Air's
chairman, John W. Adams, looks on.
The company announced yesterday that Nobles, president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines for nearly four years, is resigning, effective March 31, and would be replaced by Paul J. Casey, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau president, who has a long history of airline experience.
The airline said that Nobles, 50, would be moving to the mainland, but he declined to reveal his plans. Nobles said he will stay in touch with the airline and with Hawaii and expects to make frequent visits.
"When Bruce accepted this job three and a half years ago, the company was mired in bankruptcy," said John W. Adams, Hawaiian Air's chairman. Now it is making money, has a completely reorganized fleet, new labor agreements and new marketing partnerships with other airlines, he said at a news conference at Honolulu Airport yesterday.
Having achieved that, Nobles "wants to go on to newer challenges," Adams said.
What those new challenges are has not been discussed at Hawaiian Airlines, Adams said. The focus was on keeping the airline on track and finding a successor, he said.
Adams leads the investment group that Nobles brought in to pump capital into the airline in January 1996.
"I wouldn't be here today and probably the airline wouldn't be either," if it hadn't been for Nobles, Adams said.
Nobles joined Hawaiian in June 1993, saying his first task was to fix the airline. He is credited now with having achieved that. He took the airline through a year-long Chapter 11 bankruptcy that held off creditors while it was restructured.
When it emerged from bankruptcy in September 1994 as a new company it was free of debt but cash poor. In January 1996, Nobles brought in Adams' group of new investors. In return for their $20 million, the investors were given control of the company's board of directors.
Hawaiian, which had years of staggering losses, has had operating profits in each of the last six quarters.
Adams said he had discussions with Nobles for several months about a change at the top and they had both been looking for a successor to Nobles. Casey was the candidate who stuck out clearly above the rest, Adams said. Casey, who takes over at Hawaiian April 14, became president of the then-Hawaii Visitors Bureau in July 1995 after a nearly 20-year career in the airlines and travel industry. His previous job was as managing director for the Asia-Pacific region for travel company Thomas Cook Group in Sydney. Before that, he was an executive with Pan Am World Airways and Continental Airlines.
From 1977 to 1984 he held Pacific management positions with Pan Am. From 1985 to 1994, he was based in Hawaii in senior executive jobs for Continental including vice president of its international division, Asia-Pacific vice president and chairman, president and chief executive of its Continental Air Micronesia subsidiary.
"Paul Casey's knowledge of the key Hawaii, Pacific and Asia market, together with his understanding of the challenges facing large airlines today, make him the ideal person to lead Hawaiian into the future," said Adams.
Yesterday's announcement was made after U.S. stock markets had closed. In trading today on the American Stock Exchange, Hawaiian's stock rose, closing at $3.81, up 19 cents from yesterday.
Honolulu securities analyst Richard Dole said he wasn't surprised at the lack of reaction in the stock market. "The stock is thinly traded and those that have it are holding," Dole said. At the time of the reorganization early last year, the stock was appraised at $4.25 a share, Dole said.