From newcomer to industry leader – profile of Roger Gibson, United Airlines

A year ago almost no one in the air-cargo industry had heard of Roger Gibson. For that matter, despite his 34 years with United Airlines, Gibson knew very little about air cargo.

Now, however, the Oakland, Calif., native has emerged as an industry leader. Since replacing Jim Hartigan as vice president of cargo at United last June, he has made his mark in the industry while attempting to resurrect the reputation of United Cargo after two years of turmoil.

United experienced massive delays and cancellations in the summer of 2000 when its pilots refused to work overtime during contract negotiations. Some forwarders believe the carrier has never fully recovered. Gibson has faced hostility from forwarders angered by United¡s investment in Integres Global Logistics, which competes against forwarders in certain niches.

United¡s financial condition has also been a problem. The company lost $2.1 billion last year and another $487 million in the first quarter. Cargo volume was down 24% to $704 million last year, reflecting the economic downturn, cutbacks in capacity and traffic after Sept. 11, and the suspension of United¡s trans-Pacific freighter operation in 2000.

All that might be a bit much for someone new to the field, but Gibson takes it in stride. ?I like challenges. I don¡t like maintaining the status quo. What I do best is getting innovative and creative around problems and moving the dial,Œ he said.

Gibson acknowledges that service problems are United Cargo¡s Achilles heel. One of his first initiatives to correct the problem was to take control of the carrier¡s cargo warehouses in North America from the airports division. ?We should be processing freight, not storing freight. I want to get much more into a flow-through operation,Œ he said. His strategy is to build United Cargo as a contributing division in its own right, not an afterthought at a company where less than 5% of revenue comes from cargo. ?If you look at it more as a core business, you evolve different strategies,Œ Gibson said.

It didn¡t take long for Gibson to realize that service problems are not unique to United. Passenger airlines have been losing cargo market share to integrated carriers for years due to their inability to provide the time-definite services that shippers increasingly demand. He became chairman of Cargo 2000, an alliance of airlines and forwarders designed to improve their service quality and thereby better compete with the integrated carriers. He is also one of the prime movers behind Cargo Portal Services, a new Internet portal for forwarders to book and track air cargo (See story, Page 22). The 55-year-old Gibson describes it as ?a home run.Œ Northwest Airlines and Air Canada are the other carriers participating in the Unisys-developed portal.

Gibson showed his can-do attitude in a conversation earlier this month with Brandon Fried, chairman of the Airforwarders Association, during the Cargo Network Services Conference in Las Vegas. When Fried mentioned the competitive challenge from truckers in the domestic market and how airlines can¡t compete, Gibson responded, ?I¡m not sure about this ‰can¡t¡ stuff. That¡s what we¡ve got to overcome. Our challenge is to see how closely we (the carriers and forwarders) can become aligned. Technology can help us. The thing we have that trucks don¡t have is time.Œ

Fried, who has complained bitterly about United¡s service in the past, was impressed. ?He seems to be a very approachable, likeable person with a lot of knowledge,Œ said Fried, who is also chief operating officer of Adcom Worldwide, a forwarder in Alexandria, Va.

Besides his work with Cargo 2000, Gibson is also a director of Cargo Network Services, the International Air Transport Association¡s U.S. cargo subsidiary, and a member of IATA¡s Cargo Committee. ?He¡s ready and prepared to challenge historical assumptions,Œ said Glyn Hughes, director of cargo distribution for IATA.

Gibson joined United after leaving the Navy in 1967. He spent most of his career with the carrier¡s maintenance division in San Francisco. He gained some experience with logistics by running supply and distribution for that division. He then spent 10 years in Denver, where he served as vice president for United¡s western region, overseeing passenger sales and reservations in 18 states and Alberta. Cargo operations at warehouses in that region also came under his jurisdiction.

The cargo job is Gibson¡s first at the carrier¡s Chicago headquarters. He admits that he¡s no fan of Chicago. ?These weather extremes are not what I¡m used to,Œ said Gibson, who travels back to San Francisco most weekends where his wife is manager of training and education for United¡s maintenance division.