David Gary Neeleman (born October 16, 1959) is a Brazilian-American businessman and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He has founded five commercial airlines: Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue Airways, Azul Brazilian Airlines, and Breeze Airways. Along with Humberto Pedrosa and Aigle Azur, he owned 45% of TAP Air Portugal. In 2017 he became a citizen of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Biography

Neeleman was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil, and raised in Sandy, Utah. He lived in Brazil until he was five. His grandfather John Neeleman was born in Utah to Dutch immigrants and owned nine convenience stores.

Career

He co-founded (with June Morris) Morris Air, a low-fare charter airline, and from 1984 to 1988, he was the executive vice president of the company. In 1988, Neeleman assumed the helm of Morris Air as its president. In 1993, when Morris Air was acquired by Southwest Airlines for $130 million (Neeleman received $25 million from the sale), he worked for five months on their Executive Planning Committee. After leaving Southwest, Neeleman became the CEO of Open Skies, a

touch screen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

reservation and check-in systems company, later acquired by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

in 1999. At the same time, he helped to found two new airlines, WestJet and NewAir, which later became JetBlue. As the CEO of JetBlue Airways, his 2002 salary was $200,000 with a bonus of $90,000. Neeleman donated his entire salary to the JetBlue Crewmember Crisis Fund, which was established for JetBlue employees who had fallen on hard times. On May 10, 2007, Neeleman was replaced by David Barger as CEO of JetBlue and, on May 21, 2008, he was replaced as chairman of the board by Joel Peterson. On March 27, 2008, Neeleman officially announced plans to launch a new airline, Azul (Portuguese for "blue"), a domestic carrier in Brazil. Azul completed 2013 with over 5 Billion (BRL) in sales and is currently Brazil's largest airline. On October 30, 2013, Neeleman and his youngest brother, Mark James Neeleman, a co-founder of Azul, announced the launch of a new company, Vigzul, a home security and monitoring company. Vigzul came from an idea of Mark Neeleman and was founded by David Allred, Brett Chambers and Neeleman serves as chairman of the board and principal investor. In June 2015, the Portuguese Government decided to sell the TAP Air Portugal Group, owner of the national air carrier, TAP Air Portugal, to Atlantic Gateway, a joint venture between Neeleman and Portuguese entrepreneur Humberto Pedrosa; Atlantic Gateway took control of 61% of the capital of the Portuguese carrier, and promised to maintain Portugal as the airline's main hub for a minimum of 30 years. In July 2020 the Portuguese state increased its stake to 72.5 %. It acquired this stake from Atlantic Gateway, which now holds 22.5%.

New US startup

In June 2018, he announced plans for a new US airline called Breeze Airways for which he raised $100m capital. On July 17, 2018, Breeze Airways signed a memorandum of understanding with

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

for 60 A220-300 aircraft to be delivered beginning in 2021.

COVID-19 controversy

Neeleman was a critic of COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2020, he funded a study by John Ioannidis to estimate the prevalence of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

in Santa Clara County, California. Ioannidis, a physician and Stanford University professor, was also a prominent opponent of lockdowns during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Ioannidis did not initially disclose his funding from Neeleman, thus creating a potential

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

Personal life

Neeleman, a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

, served a two-year mission in Brazil when he was 19. He has been diagnosed with ADHD. He is the father of 10 children with his former wife, Vicki Vranes. The couple has since divorced. His brother, Stephen Neeleman, a general and trauma surgeon, was one of the founders of the American health care company

HealthEquity HealthEquity, Inc. is an American financial technology and business services company that is designated as a non-bank health savings trustee by the IRS. This designation allows HealthEquity to be the custodian of health savings accounts regardle ...

. His nephew by his sister, Lisa, is Miami Dolphins quarterback Zach Wilson. His son, Daniel Neeleman, and daughter-in-law, Hannah Neeleman, run the social media account Ballerina Farm. Neeleman was the 2005 recipient of the Tony Jannus Award for his contributions in the commercial aviation industry. He speaks fluent Portuguese and holds citizenships of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, U.S. and

.Azul, Brazil Airline Started by JetBlue Founder, Files for I.P.O.
December 1, 2014, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

References

External links

Forbes PersonDavid Neeleman InterviewOwner of Azul Launches Home Security CompanyFounders of Azul Create Monitoring Company
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neeleman, David 1959 births Living people Airline founders Brazilian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from São Paulo Brazilian people of Dutch descent Brazilian people of American descent 20th-century Brazilian businesspeople People from New Canaan, Connecticut American people of Dutch descent American airline chief executives Latter Day Saints from Utah Businesspeople in aviation American Mormon missionaries in Brazil Azul Brazilian Airlines WestJet people JetBlue 20th-century Mormon missionaries David Eccles School of Business alumni Latter Day Saints from Connecticut Naturalized citizens of Cyprus People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 21st-century Brazilian businesspeople