Laurie Villa joins JetBlue succeeding Mike Elliott

JetBlue announced the appointment of Laurie Villa to Chief People Officer, effective in June 2021. Reporting to JetBlue’s CEO, Robin Hayes, Villa will be responsible for engaging JetBlue crewmembers and fostering its unique culture, overseeing teams such as compensation and benefits; diversity, equity and inclusion; crew relations; values and labor relations; recruiting and talent management; and JetBlue University.

“For over a decade, Mike has been one of our fiercest culture champions and an advocate for the People team and all of our Crewmembers,” said Hayes. “As we grew and evolved our business, he never forgot the needs of our crewmembers and tirelessly worked to protect our unique culture as a competitive advantage. I am thankful to Mike for all he has done over the past ten years, but I am especially grateful for thoughtfully leading this transition effort and for delaying his plans to move on from JetBlue because of the pandemic. He has certainly earned some well-deserved time off after a year of unprecedented challenge and so many years of service to our people.”

“Even though we must say goodbye to Mike, I’m thrilled to welcome Laurie to JetBlue as we begin a historic rebound in travel and continue to transform our People and training functions to support our crewmembers in the new landscape,” Hayes said. “Laurie has deep knowledge of our industry and a love for the JetBlue brand. I’m confident she’ll be a terrific addition to the senior leadership team and will help inspire our crewmembers as we tackle new challenges in our industry and work to bring greater diversity and equity to JetBlue.”

With more than 20 years of leadership experience, Villa has shaped effective people and talent strategies to support long-term business objectives in a number of industries, including consumer goods, specialty retail, education, and technology. She most recently served as the chief human resources officer at Spirit Airlines for the past six and a half years where she leveraged data and analytics to improve the employee and guest experience, strengthen culture and engagement, and grow their talent pipeline. Laurie also focused heavily on targeted investments in internal talent and strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion within the airline.

Source: JetBlue Airways