Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines
Y-SIM CEO Speaker Series
How defying cost-cutting and investing in people helped Ed Bastian turn Delta into America’s most profitable airline
Thursday, October 2
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM UTC
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM GMT
Concludes with student Q&A: Your opportunity to gain leadership insights straight from the CEO
Virtual/Zoom
The series is just getting started! Registrants can opt-in to receive notifications on future CEO Speaker Series events, and post-event recordings, articles and insights.
Can’t make it? Email ysim@yale.edu to be notified about CEO speaker series events.
About Ed Bastian
As CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian leads 100,000 global professionals who are building the world’s premier international airline, powered by a people-driven, customer-focused culture and spirit of innovation.
Under Ed’s leadership, Delta is transforming the air travel experience with generational investments in technology, aircraft, airport facilities and, most importantly, Delta’s employees worldwide. A more-than-25-year Delta veteran, Ed has been a critical leader in Delta’s long-term strategy and champion of putting Delta’s shared values of honesty, integrity, respect, perseverance and servant leadership at the core of every decision.
Since being named Delta’s CEO in May 2016, Ed has expanded Delta’s leading position as the world’s most reliable airline while growing its global footprint and enhancing the customer experience in the air and on the ground. During his tenure as CEO, Delta has become America’s most awarded airline, being named the top-ranking airline in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies 12 times.
About the Y-SIM CEO Speaker Series
The idea that great companies can serve both business and society sounds deceptively simple. In practice, it is one of the most complex challenges leaders face. How can CEOs systematically create value for customers, employees, partners, communities, and other stakeholders—while sustaining financial success?
The Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management (Y-SIM) is launching a CEO speaker series to explore this question directly with leaders of iconic enterprises. Moderated by Jon Iwata, Executive Fellow at Yale SOM and former Chief Brand Officer at IBM, these conversations probe the toughest “how” questions: How do leaders balance stakeholder demands without zero-sum tradeoffs? How do they turn commitments into systems and strategy? How do they position their companies to thrive long after founders are gone?
By uncovering the mechanisms behind these choices, the series reveals the playbooks shaping some of the most consequential strategies in business today.