Oscar Munoz's tough ride as United CEO

Five weeks into his new job as CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz had a heart attack. It was October 2015. Munoz, then 56, was rushed to the hospital. In January 2016, he had a heart transplant. Two months later, he was back at work. Munoz had inherited a company in disarray. His predecessor, Jeff Smisek, was ousted after the airline was caught in a federal corruption probe. United's 2010 merger with Continental had left the carrier an internal mess. Customer satisfaction and employee morale were low, and United's stock was on the decline. "[An airline has] three legs on a stool — its customers, its investors and its labor. And United had fallen behind on all three," said John Strong, a professor of business administration at the College of William and Mary. Over the next year, Munoz managed to stabilize the company. In March 2017, the magazine PRWeek named Munoz its US Communicator of the Year. Then, in April, Dr David Dao was violently dragged off a United plane from Chicago to Louisville, in order to make space for commuting crew members. The incident was captured by passengers on their phones, and quickly went viral. United's botched response made the situation into a national news story. Munoz was told he would not take over as chairman of United's board later that month. Now, United is back in the news. Earlier this week, a dog died after it was put in the overhead bin on a United flight. "This series of things over the past 18 months has been kind of outrageous," said Bryan Reber, a professor at the University of Georgia who studies crisis communication and management. In the midst of all this, Munoz has faced intense pressure from investors to ramp up profits. Story has more details.<br/>