Biography|Gary C. Kelly — The Gavel Changed Hands in This Hall

People treat Herb Kelleher as the permanent face of the airline. On 21 May 2008 the board gave the chair to the accountant.

After the annual shareholders' meeting at headquarters, the directors elected Kelly chairman. The company said Kelleher passed the gavel there, in front of more than three hundred shareholders.

Kelly was already CEO. On 15 July 2008 he would also take the president title when Colleen Barrett's contract expired.

The press release went out from Dallas that afternoon under the investor-relations wire. Kelleher and Barrett were to remain employees through July 2013.

The building at 2702 Love Field Drive had opened in 1990 and been expanded in 1995. By 2008 it was the named campus beside the field the ticker still honors.

The succession Kelleher had accelerated in July 2004 was now complete in title. Chairman, chief executive, and soon president sat in one office on this lot.

Kelly later dropped the president title in January 2017, when Tom Nealon took that chair. The chairmanship stayed with him until the 2020s handoff to executive chairman and then chairman emeritus.

This photograph shows the headquarters from Love Field Drive in 2009, a year after the gavel moved. The public entrance is around the south side, off Seelcco Drive.

Photo: Mang9, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons