As President & COO of Vari, Jeff oversees corporate strategy and has been on point for the development of VariSpace. He is helping to scale the fast-growing private company that recently won E/Y’s National Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Jeff has 38 years of corporate leadership & board experience, spanning nine industries. His “people first” approach to operational models, was born working for Roger Staubach and developed over the 12 years working at Southwest Airlines. He began his culture tutelage under Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest and then spent 8 years fine tuning people-centric strategies for Southwest Chairman & CEO Gary Kelly. His signature accomplishments include serving as Chief Integration Officer for the AirTran Airlines acquisition, Chief People Officer – launching Southwest Airlines University, Emerging Leadership Development Program (ELDP), transforming a 2000 employee Technology & Corporate Delivery function and constructing over $3B of office space and airports.
Jeff has hands on experience leading almost every corporate function. His experience includes Human Resources, Training, Culture, Supply Chain, Security, and Technology. He has also led Finance, Customer Experience, Legal, Aviation, Risk Management, Corporate Delivery and over a dozen Mergers & Acquisitions.
In addition to his service on both public and private boards such as ClubCorp (Chair of Compensation Committee) and Highland Homes, Jeff has board service on the national board of Make-A-Wish, Children’s Hospital Dallas, Lionheart Children’s Academy, and Cornerstone Community Development Corporation.