Nov. 24, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leslie McKinley
Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business
805-756-2219; lmckinle@calpoly.edu
Alumna Among WSJ's 'Woman to Watch'
Speaking on Campus in April
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Delta Airlines Executive and Cal Poly Alumna Joanne Smith will be coming back to campus to speak as part of the Orfalea College of Business Distinguished Speaker Series on Thursday, April 23, 2009.
The San Luis Obispo native and Cal Poly Business Administration grad was named one of "50 Women to Watch" by the Wall Street Journal in November. Smith graduated from Cal Poly in 1982 and currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business.
The senior vice president of in-flight service and global product development for Delta Air Lines, Smith helped Delta survive bankruptcy reorganization by restyling Delta’s global brand and spearheading an effort to energize the customer experience across the airline.
Smith began her career as a flight attendant, a job that helped pay her way through college, and which she later credited for helping her understand consumer’s in-flight experiences. To reinvent a Delta subsidiary earlier in her career, Smith led a branding overhaul that replaced bland indistinguishable cabins for accommodations that featured upbeat music, seat-back entertainment, designer duds on flight attendants and festive cocktails like the “Mile High Mojito.”
With Delta’s acquisition of Northwest Airlines in 2008, the airline now ranks as the busiest in the world in passenger traffic.
Smith is native of San Luis Obispo and her parents still reside in the area. Smith now lives in Peachtree, GA with her family.
For more details on the Wall Street Journal's 2008 '50 Women to Watch list,' see the story on the WSJ Web site at:
http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122608990529609245.html.
Time and place for Smith's speech at Cal Poly will be released in spring 2009. Contact Leslie McKinley at the address above for details in the meantime.
###