Ben Schlappig of One Mile at a Time noticed something unusual today:
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld published an opinion piece in Fortune about how “the skies for American Airlines are clearer than you think.” For context, the 71-year-old is currently the Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies and Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at the Yale School of Management.
The article, which sits behind a paywall on Fortune but was republished on MSN.com, paints a rosy picture of America’s fourth-most profitable major airline, and specifically of Isom’s leadership.
Sonnenfeld argues that Isom has never produced a loss, renegotiated labor contracts, runs the strongest domestic network, has accomplishments for which he receives “little to no credit” and that he’s being blamed for bad weather, among other things.
He says Isom is an “unheralded” and “underappreciated” CEO who “rolls up his sleeves and takes challenges head on,” and is “leading American brilliantly and boldly.”
Whether you agree with that praise or not, you might have wanted to know that Sonnenfeld:
- Introduced Robert Isom at a Leaders Forum Lecture in 2021
- Organized an award for Isom’s predecessor in 2022
- Invited Isom to a Yale CEO Summit in 2024
- Invited Isom to a Yale CEO Summit in 2025
You might also have wanted to know that both Sonnenfeld and American Airlines participated in a Business Insider article in 2021 that describes him as a “CEO whisperer” who said he sends the invitations to those summits “personally.” Or that he “earned the trust of the business elite over decades of relationship building” and has become so well-connected that “he’s attained an indirect influence over corporate America.”
Sonnenfeld says in the same interview that he’s not “beholden to any CEO,” and, to his credit, he also organized an award to Delta CEO Ed Bastian last year.
Still, I would’ve liked Fortune to mention that perhaps the reason Sonnenfeld is so well-informed about Robert Isom is that he invites him to a bunch of his events.