The Human Factor

IN THE LATTER mission, he embodies the "Fight On" motto of his alma mater the University of Southern Cal- ifornia, moving forward even while dealing with a heart transplant in 2015.

Muñoz has earned accolades for his business acumen and philanthropy in the United States and in the land of his birth, Mexico. The latest honor Muñoz has received is the 2021 Maestro Award from Latino Leaders magazine on September 24, a few months after Muñoz retired as United Airlines chief executive officer, president and chairman. The values that would be the foundation of Muñoz life were shaped in Mexico where he spent his early years with his maternal grandmother who taught him the importance of hard work, perseverance and helping others, he said. “Life with abuela involved a lot of traveling from home to home. She did not have her own place, but she had family everywhere.”

"We would show up at someone's house and live there for a little while," he said, "always knowing that my mom was in the United States and somehow we would reconnect." This reunion occurred in California when Muñoz was about nine and "America opened its doors, so to speak," he said. "I was probably one of the original Dreamers, before Dreamers became a thing," he said. Muñoz father was a union meat cutter and his mother a home maker raising nine children. "We had a lot of love, a lot of laughter, and not a lot of things, but we always laughed and always loved," he said.

Muñoz planned to graduate high school, get a job, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after, he re called, adding "there is nothing wrong with it." However, a high school counselor who had seen his preliminary SAT scores set him to thinking about college, something that was a strange notion to someone with his background.

Muñoz was accepted to several colleges, but he chose USC because the Los Angeles school started classes earlier than others. "It was just that simple," he said. Initially, Muñoz wanted to be a doctor and then a lawyer, but he eventually got a business degree from USC and an MBA from Pepperdine University and started working in finance. "I had an aptitude and it just rose from there," he added. What set Muñoz on the right course, he said, was his Latino values: the ability to work with others and to listen to others with compassion and empathy.

Muñoz held several administrative, financial and customer service jobs at corporate giants such as Pepsico, U.S. West Coca-Cola, AT&T and CSX before he went from United Airlines corporate board to running the troubled company. Along the way, Muñoz asked a lot of questions, however, learning to project yourself as yourself proved valuable, he said, "especially when you venture into a situation like I did – a turnaround."

His definition of a turnaround is that everything is broken and at United, Muñoz said, there were a "billion things" that needed to be done. "My mantra is to figure out what needs to be fixed first, what is the foundational element of a turn- around, which is different for every company, he said, adding that how you figure that out is to listen, learn and then lead.

Muñoz devoted 37 days, he said, "to go out and listen to everyone in every nook and cranny of every airport I could find." On the 36th day, Muñoz met a flight attendant as he traveled from Denver to Chicago. When he asked her what was going on, she started to cry, he recalled and said she was just tired of always having to say she was sorry when things like food service did not go well. "To me, after all of the data collection, after all of the analysis I was doing, it saw the profoundly human thing that was what was wrong with our company," he said.

Two days after his pivotal encounter with the flight attendant, Muñoz suffered a heart attack and eventually required a coronary transplant. However, he remained on point and focused on the foundational layer that needed to be fixed. "We had to regain the trust of our employees," Muñoz said, "and I had the first very difficult challenge of explaining to people that this was what we have to get done first, because without it we are not going anywhere."

By 2020 United was atop the airline leader board, but then its industry was crushed by coronavirus pandemic. Recovery has been slow over the past year, but Muñoz is hopeful. "The airline industry is going to continue to have its ups and downs," he said, "but demand is rising, and I believe business travel will return."

Muñoz takes pride in the Latino values of compassion, car- ing, empathy and loyalty. "These are things that define us, who we are," he said. "One of the greatest things we can do as we achieve things in our community is to bring people up." This includes working to educate investors about what he describes as the Latino community's massive entrepreneurial spirit.

"Surely we need to be on boards and in leadership, and that is slowly progressing and being worked out, but more importantly there is a need to educate ourselves as to what we can do," he said, such as representing a huge part of the nation's Gross Domestic Product. "If we don't believe in ourselves, it is hard to convey that to capital allocators who can actually make a difference for us."

As for retirement, "it is a pretty good life," Muñoz said. "Philanthropy and family and all those things continue to be important," he said. He enjoys the outdoors and living near the ocean, where he relaxes by being in the water. "I also love to bike rides, play tennis and golf, things I do with friends," he said. From a business perspective, he suggests he might become an investor, an advisor and work with several startups. "The great thing about my situation is I get to pick what I do, with whom and where I do it," he said.

“...SHE STARTED TO CRY, HE RECALLED AND SAID SHE WAS JUST TIRED OF ALWAYS HAVING TO SAY SHE WAS SORRY WHEN THINGS LIKE FOOD SERVICE DID NOT GO WELL..”

What Muñoz continues to do is to serve on the boards of directors and as an advisor for several companies. He also is a trustee for USC. He also closely keeps up with the airline industry. "It is still a fascinating industry, with incred- ible people that increasingly care about you the customer," Muñoz said "and as for me personally, I will simply sit by and watch and advise."