Dallas-headquartered Southwest Airlines has announced Ryan Martinez will be replacing Marcy Brand as managing director of IR.
Martinez, who joined the company in 2006, served as an IR manager until 2013 before moving on to financial planning and analysis. Most recently he was senior director for corporate planning.
An accounting and finance graduate of Louisiana State University in Shreveport and a certified public accountant, Martinez started his career as an accountant for Ivan Smith Furniture. He subsequently served as a senior associate at BDO Seidman and as a senior financial analyst for retail group Neiman Marcus.
NYSE-listed Southwest Airlines, which formerly used ‘Just Plane Smart’ as a slogan, reportedly staged an arm-wrestling match in lieu of a trademark lawsuit when rival Stevens Aviation pointed out it had been using ‘Plane Smart’ as its slogan prior to Southwest’s adoption of the near-identical term. Southwest co-founder Herb Kelleher lost to Stevens’ Kurt Herwald, who nevertheless allowed Southwest to keep the slogan, while proceeds of the match went to charity.
