JetBlue Founder Steps Aside

Updated from 9:48 a.m. EDT

David Neeleman's nine-year run as CEO of the airline he founded has come to an end.

JetBlue(JBLU Quote - Cramer on JBLU - Stock Picks) said Thursday that Dave Barger has been appointed chief executive, effective immediately. Barger retains his post as president.

Neeleman, the founder and top executive at JetBlue since 1998, will become nonexecutive chairman of the board. JetBlue shares rose 4.7% Thursday, closing at $10.89.

"I think the board has been talking about this for a long time," Neeleman told the Associated Press. He said the change does not result directly from the carrier's severe operational problems in the wake of February and March storms that grounded flights and left many of its customers stranded, noting: "It's just really good governance, to separate the chairman and the CEO role."

The move typifies the type of change companies make as they evolve from an entrepreneurial stage to one where operations take precedence. In that regard, the winter's operational breakdown apparently provoked an action that would ultimately have had to be taken. Neeleman "is the visionary and agreed with the board's decision to have him take a more strategic role as chairman, with Dave Barger running the day-to-day operations of the airline," said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

A Legacy of Innovation

Neeleman, who first took the title of chairman in 2002, has been among the airline industry's leading innovators, building JetBlue into one of the four principal carriers in the world's richest aviation market, New York City.

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