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"They didn't care if you were too young or didn't have enough years of experience. All they cared about was if you were competent and able to do a good job," says Bernie Han, who worked at American from 1988 until 1991. He later became the chief financial officer at America West and then held that title at Northwest. He is now chief operating officer of Dish Network. American's headquarters was an energetic place. Competition was fierce but friendly. The analysts often bounced ideas off each other while playing Nerf basketball in a cubicle. "If somebody did good work, the other guy wanted to do better work," says Jeff Katz, an American alumnus who went on to become CEO of Swissair, then led the online travel company Orbitz before landing the top job at Nextag, an online shopping website. Despite being at competing airlines today, many of the former American analysts still keep in touch. From the start, they were a social group. After work, beers were had at the Euless Yacht Club -- a land-locked dive bar that was the closest place to headquarters. Other nights, it was margaritas at Esparza's, a nearby Mexican restaurant. There were Texas Rangers games, a basketball league that Parker played in and the occasional lunchtime trip to Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse. "We were all single and many people met their spouses there," says Teri L. Brooks, who rose to head human resources at American before leaving in 1996. She started the same year as David Brooks. Five and a half years later, they were married. He now runs American's cargo division. Parker met his wife Gwen -- then an American flight attendant -- thanks to Cush, who knew her through a college friend. Working at an airline meant free flights. Thursday night or Friday morning a weekend destination was selected
-- New York, London, the Caribbean or skiing in Utah. "We'd all pile into hotel rooms, sleep on the floor," Brooks says. Sometimes a random gate was picked. The plane might be heading to Cancun or Kansas City. Fate would decide. "I was never a fan of that game," says Virgin America's Cush. "It never worked out very well." For the most part, the young analysts were respected by those outside the finance department. Occasionally, a veteran manager would ask how long they'd been at American, suggesting they weren't qualified to be asking questions. That was the exception. Crandall wanted the facts and would take them from whoever knew the business best. Those working around him learned how to gather information about a complex issue and then make a decision. "If you were aggressive, intelligent and were willing to work hard," Baldanza says, "there was no limit on the types of things you could be involved in."
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