Bethune will be looking for the 'right deal'

26 December 2004

BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

Star-Ledger Staff

Gordon Bethune doesn't play golf.

He also doesn't like sitting around the house, or being just another wealthy Houstonian with a lot of time on his hands.

In other words, if there is a company out there, preferably one in the aviation business, looking for a guy who has proven he knows how to clean house and turn a business around, Bethune wants to hear from it.

Of course he doesn't say that exactly. That would be a come-down for a man who claims he hasn't had to apply for a job since he enlisted in the Navy at age 17.

But the outgoing chief executive at the country's leading international airline brings up the topic of his yet-to-be-determined next gig on his own, mere minutes after the start of an interview. Continental officials say his severance package doesn't include a noncompete agreement.

"I'm not dead yet, and I do have some value," said Bethune, 63. "If I see a good deal, I'll take it."

Fiercely loyal to Continental's employees for the past decade, Bethune is attempting a difficult balancing act as he tries to keep his options open and reassure Continental workers, who fear they will wake up next month and read that they have to compete against the man recognized as the savviest big airline executive in the country.

Despite Bethune's age - which will eliminate him from consideration at companies looking for a leader for the next 20 years - executive-search professionals say he will bring immediate credibility to any company that hires him.

"If it's a turnaround situation where you are looking for someone for the next five to seven years, then he's an ideal candidate," said Michael Zinn, principal of Michael Zinn Associates, a Princeton-based executive search firm.

Bethune isn't looking simply to line his pockets. He says he reached one goal years ago when he realized he had earned enough money to keep his home in steamy Houston at a comfortable 72 degrees around the clock. Then he achieved another goal when he realized he had enough money to drive any car he wanted to drive, and he could change his mind whenever he wanted.

Now he claims to be a man of humble needs, stating that the only things he can't live without are steak, scotch and sex.

"My wife asked me which was the most important," he says. "I told her, 'Depends on what I had last.'"

What he wants to find now is what he calls the "right deal." He hasn't seen it yet, and claims he doesn't even know what it is. The likely suspects are aerospace giant Boeing, where he worked before taking control of Continental, or any of the major carriers treading water these days, such as Delta or United.

When asked about his future during farewell meetings, Bethune has said that wherever he ends up, he won't become a "fierce competitor" of Continental, though it is hard to imagine him telling the board of a major airline that he intends to aim for second place.

For Bethune, management is all about getting the employees to "want to work" by instilling in them the discipline and pride that produces consistency.

It sounds simple, so applicable to any kind of business, but Bethune doesn't want to work in just any business. He has enjoyed the spotlight running a high-profile business, such as an airline, as much as he has enjoyed anything about his job. So don't look for him in the drywall industry anytime soon.

"If you go to a party and tell people you are a plumber, the pretty girls don't want to talk to you," he says. "Why? I don't know why, but I do know they want to talk to the airline guys."

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