JetBlue founder to speak at Positive Marketing Week

Areas of Study , Featured Events , Marketing , Marketing Association Student Organizations & Clubs | Oct 24, 2011 | Nicole Gesualdo

David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue and its former CEO, will deliver the keynote address at the Center for Positive Marketing’s first conference on Friday, November 4. Gabelli students are welcome to attend the event, which will be held at Lincoln Center, at a special reduced-price student admission rate.

Neeleman launched JetBlue in January 2000 after a stint at Southwest, and the airline he created turned into one of his former employer’s biggest competitors. His new company entered the market with extraordinarily competitive fares, but it paired them with a slate of amenities, perks, customer service and style that immediately distinguished JetBlue in the marketplace.

Neeleman has since left JetBlue and, in March 2008, founded his fourth airline, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S.A. This airline operates domestically within Brazil, the country where Neeleman was born and lived until age 5.

During the Center for Positive Marketing conference at Fordham, Neeleman will receive the Cura Personalis in Positive Marketing Award, which, according to center director Dawn Lerman, is “given to an executive whose leadership and vision uplift organizational stakeholders, individual citizens, and society at large.”

Gabelli students are strongly encouraged to hear Neeleman’s speech. Students must formally register to attend the conference, which they can do via the Center for Positive Marketing’s site: http://www.centerforpositivemarketing.org/content/conference/

Photograph of Neeleman courtesy of the SMEI Academy of Achievement web site.