Southwest Airlines chairman to speak Friday

Herb Kelleher, founder and executive chairman of Southwest Airlines, will make a return visit to the Kelley School of Business to present his speech, “Southwest Airlines from the Chairman’s View,” on Friday. \n“He is going to deliver a very good message,” said Donald F. Kuratko, the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship and executive director of IU’s Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.\nKelleher will talk about entrepreneurship and his own successes and experiences with Southwest Airlines.\nThe speech will be the first IU Entrepreneurial Connection program, which is a way to annually network students and alumni from the Kelley School of Business.\n“I think we need to connect our students with our alumni,” said Kuratko, who also says alumni can help IU’s current students. \nKelleher drew an audience to IU’s campus when he spoke in the spring of 2005 about corporate governance and ethics, and this year organizers plan on about 250 people to attend.\n“We invited him back because we wanted a big name for this program,” said Sue Artmeier, assistant director of the Johnson Center. “We want people to drop what they’re doing for the day and come to Bloomington.” \nArtmeier said the IU Entrepreneurial Connection program is built to provide a chance for students to find a mentor through the alumni. \n“We’re trying to build a real connection there,” Artmeier said.\nFollowing Kelleher’s speech, Kuratko will moderate a discussion panel, giving the audience a chance to ask questions to Kelleher and other speakers, including Dr. Gary J. Anderson, founder and managing general partner of TL Ventures and venture capitalist-in-residence at IU; and William L. Haeberle, professor emeritus of management in the Kelley School.\nAs one of the audience members who heard Kelleher speak in the spring of 2005, Haeberle described Kelleher as a type of honest man who inspires people to think that big things are possible.\n“It is very apparent with this man he is totally unpretentious,” Haeberle said. “What you see is what you get.”\nHaeberle views Kelleher’s presentation as an opportunity for students to see and hear a legend.\n“We have here a classic case of the entrepreneur that boot-strapped a company not only to be a huge success, but dramatically impacted other airlines,” Haeberle said.