Colleen Barrett

Career Legal secretary In 1968, several years after graduating from Becker, Barrett got a job as a legal secretary working for Herb Kelleher when he was a young lawyer at Wilbur Matthews' law firm in San Antonio. Kelleher had a reputation as a skilled, but chronically disorganized lawyer, whose office was in such disarray that a night guard at the firm once called the police assuming a break-in had occurred. Barrett's first duty was to set up a filing system to organize ten years-worth of his case files. For the first seven years of operation, Kelleher and Barrett supported Southwest through continued legal support as Kelleher remained an active lawyer, though also with a seat on the Southwest board. However, after a leadership restructure in 1978, Kelleher became chairman of the board and temporary CEO (becoming full-time CEO in 1981). Kelleher brought Barrett with him once again and she remained his secretary and advisor. When they transitioned to Southwest full-time, they both took a leave of absence from the Oppenheimer law firm that technically was never cancelled for the remainder of their careers. and a position on the Executive Planning Committee. She is commonly referred to as the airline industry's "Queen of Hearts" for her focus on corporate values and service. During her time in leadership she made an effort to personally respond to correspondence from every customer who wrote to the company. She also contributed to the airline's fuel hedging strategy. With this promotion, she became the first and then-only woman to hold the office of president at a major airline, and the highest ranking woman in the world of aviation.

Barrett's term as president was met with immediate challenges. She started by inheriting a difficult labor dispute with the Transport Workers Union of America representing Southwest ground operations agents.

Overall, Barrett's tenure as president was very successful. While most of Southwest's competitors faced service cuts, bankruptcy, or ceased operations during her term of leadership, Southwest remained profitable and grew to the largest carrier of domestic passengers. The airline also consistently had the fewest complaints according to the Department of Transportation, an accomplishment largely credited to Barrett's focus on customer service.

President emerita In 2008, Barrett stepped down as president of the airline, passing the title to then-CEO Gary C. Kelly. Kelleher passed his title as Chairman to Kelly at the same time. Barrett and Kelleher were titled, respectively, President Emerita and Chairman Emeritus. They both chose to remain with the company. Barrett enjoyed returning to a regular employee role and continued to work in customer service and employee development roles for the next 5 years.

Leadership style Barrett was well known for her focus on servant leadership. She focused on egalitarian principles and treating all employees equally. Her general philosophy is that if you treat your employees well, they will treat your customers well, who in turn will come back and treat your share-holders well.

Awards and recognitions

Barrett had stated, "You can't do things to get accolades; you do things because they are the right thing to do." 2005: Inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame 2005: Recipient of the Horatio Alger Award 2007: Recipient of the Outstanding Women in Aviation award 2015: The Colleen Barrett Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Becker College named in her honor The Colleen Barrett Award for Administrative Excellence was named in her honor Listed by Women in Aviation as among the 100 most influential women in aviation