Executive changes continue at private charter provider Wheels Up with an announcement on Tuesday that company founder Kenny Dichter will be stepping down from his role as CEO. Wheels Up chief financial officer Todd Smith has been named interim CEO and an executive search firm has been retained to find a permanent CEO. Dichter will remain a member of the company’s board of directors. Wheels Up also stated that current board member Ravi Thakran will be serving as executive chairman.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank our 12,000+ loyal members and customers—and the incredible Wheels Up team—who have made the company what it is today,” said Dichter. “As we continue our path to profitability, this is the right time to take on a new role where I will support Ravi and Todd and the business.”
Last week, Wheels Up announced that it was replacing its chief marketing officer and hiring a new chief digital officer. As previously reported by AVweb, the company posted a net loss of $555 million in 2022 and $197 million in 2021. Wheels Up was founded in 2013 and went public in 2021.
Why did it take so long to give Kenny the boot? He is one of few in history that was able to turn a $100,000,000 annual loss into $500,000,000 loss in 12 months. He never made a profit, or came close to a profit, in 10 years.
And….Kenny gets to keep his $78,000 / month salary for two more years! $78,000 PER MONTH OF INVESTOR MONEY!!!!!! Gets a $3,000,000 kicker of INVESTOR MONEY, gets to use the company plane AT INVESTOR EXPENSE etc etc ……Whatever happened to falling on ones own sword in disgrace? No longer fashionable I guess. It is shameful that he would take this money from the shareholders and cardholders that he bilked billions out of. Shameful. Bernie got 150 years for his scheme and Kenny gets $78,000/month and a fleet of aircraft at his beck and call.
The CFO (also culpable for the loses) will now be commanding the mothership?
Hopefully the SEC will act in the best interest of the shareholders. Hopefully someone can turn the company around for the sake of the shareholders and employees.
And Kenny, you still owe me two weeks vacation pay for 2020.
Kenny’s package is child’s play in the realm of failed CEO exits. Google Marissa Mayer, ex CEO of Yahoo. She was at Yahoo for 5 years during which time the company lost massive amounts of ad revenue, headcount shrunk 50%, web traffic to the site dropped more than half, and they suffered one of the biggest security breaches in histroy exposing nearly all of their users personal information. For that performance she made something like $239 million over 5 years and received a $23 million terminaiton package. That was in 2017 and she hasn’t worked since. The Board of Directors controls CEO compensation and allow these things to happen time after time…
Welcome to plutocractic capitalism, where all the upper-class people look out for their collective best interests, while shoving their boots on the faces of everyone who does their work for them.
George Santos may soon be looking for a new career, perhaps he could assume a leadership role in the company.