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Bloomberg
United Continental Holdings Inc.’s top communications executive is stepping down after leading the
airline’s PR strategy through a tumultuous two-year tenure and worldwide scandal this April.
Jim Olson, senior vice president of corporate communications, will resign effective from January 8 to pursue other opportunities, he said in a letter to employees. The decision was his own and he wasn’t asked to leave, Megan McCarthy, a United spokeswoman, said.
Olson is leaving after a chaotic period that included a corporate turnaround effort, a battle with activist investors and a media firestorm when a passenger was dragged off a United Express flight in Chicago. When Olson arrived, United still was recovering from a scandal in which its CEO was ousted for his role in flights scheduled to benefit a New York-area airport official. The new boss, current CEO Oscar Munoz, suffered a heart attack just a month after taking the job and underwent a heart transplant three months later.
United has been stuck behind Delta Air Lines Inc and American Airlines Group inc in terms of profit margin.