Officer Biographies

Ron Ricks Executive Vice President for Corporate Services and Corporate Secretary

Ron Ricks is the Executive Vice President Corporate Services and Corporate Secretary at Southwest Airlines in Dallas, Texas. Prior to joining Southwest, Ron was a partner in the San Antonio law firm founded by Herb Kelleher, where Ron worked extensively on the Southwest Airlines’ account. All together, Ron has represented Southwest for 27 years.

At Southwest, Ron serves on the Senior Management Committee, the airline’s senior officer group, and the Executive Planning Committee, the ten-member executive officer group for strategic and longrange planning. Responsibilities include: oversight of the Legal and Properties (corporate real estate) Departments; the Labor and Employee Relations Department; airport relationships; governmental and regulatory affairs (federal, state, and local); political relationships; and, the development of positions with respect to public policy issues affecting Southwest Airlines and the airline industry.

As Corporate Secretary, Ron serves as a liaison to Southwest’s Board of Directors with respect to the corporate governance, legal, and regulatory compliance aspects of the Board’s duties.

Currently, in addition to his duties at Southwest, Ron serves on the Advisory Board of the MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development. The Center is a private, non-profit research and development enterprise that serves as the FAA’s primary contractor for the design and development of the nation’s “Next Generation” Air Traffic Control system. Ron also serves on the Advisory Board of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, one of the oldest and largest medical facilities in North Texas.

Ron is a 1972 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he met and married his wife Eileen, and earned his law degree in 1976 from The National Law Center at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. He and Eileen have one son, Alan, age 26, and a wonderful daughter-in-law, Jordan Bentley Ricks.

Back to Officer Biographies Index