Delta Air Lines Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson for a second time announced his departure from the airline, this time to become CFO at General Motors.
Jacobson, Delta’s CFO since 2012, said in February that he planned to retire from the company at the age of 48 but would stay on several months while a successor was chosen and transitioned into his job.
But in April, Delta CEO Ed Bastian announced that Jacobson had “agreed to rescind his retirement” to stay and help the Atlanta-based airline work through the coronavirus crisis.
Jacobson will now leave the airline Nov. 15.
Bastian said Delta will conduct a search for Jacobson’s replacement.
Meanwhile two senior vice presidents will be co-chief financial officers — Gary Chase, senior vice president of business development and financial planning, and Bill Carroll, senior vice president of finance and controller.
Bastian wrote in a memo to employees Friday that Jacobson led a team that raised nearly $30 billion in liquidity “essential to weathering the storm” and “has worked tirelessly throughout this year to save costs and protect our future.” He said he appreciated Jacobson’s leadership “through some of the darkest days of Delta’s history.”
As part of the airline’s cost cuts, Delta officers took 50% pay cuts through December, while other employees also had pay reduced by 25% or 50%.
Jacobson said in a written statement in General Motors' announcement of his appointment effective Dec. 1 that “GM’s vision is compelling because it embraces the needs of society, customers and investors, and they are executing an historic technology shift to electrification from a position of strength.”
Jacobson graduated from Auburn University and joined Delta as a financial analyst in 1997 after earning a master’s of business administration from Vanderbilt University.
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