Biography

William A. Franke has served as Board Chair since December 2013. Mr. Franke has served as managing partner of Indigo Partners LLC, a private equity fund focused on air transportation, since 2002. Mr. Franke was the chairman of America West Airlines, Inc., an airline later absorbed into a predecessor of American Airlines, from 1992 to 2001 and chief executive officer of America West Airlines from 1993 to 2001. He has served as chairman of the boards of directors of Wizz Air Holdings Plc, an airline based in Europe, since February 2005, JetSMART Holdings Limited, the parent company of an airline based in South America, since February 2017, Lynx Air Holdings Corporation, formerly Enerjet Holdco, Inc., the holding company of an airline based in Canada, since December 2018, and APiJET, LLC, a software company focused on providing real-time cost saving analytics to airlines, since November 2020. Mr. Franke has also served on the board of directors of Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V., an airline based in Mexico doing business as Volaris, since July 2010. He previously served as chairman of Spirit Airlines, Inc. from 2006 to 2013 and Tiger Aviation Pte. Ltd, a Singapore-based airline, from 2004 to 2009, and as a member of the boards of directors of Alpargatas S.A.I.C., an Argentina-based footwear and textiles manufacturer, from 1996 to 2007, and Phelps Dodge Corporation, a mining company, where he served as the lead outside director for several years, from 1980 to 2007. He also previously served on a number of other publicly listed company boards of directors, including ON Semiconductor, Valley National Corporation, Southwest Forest Industries, Circle K Corporation, and Beringer Wine Estates Holdings, Inc. Mr. Franke holds a B.A. and an LLB from Stanford University and honorary doctorates from Northern Arizona University and the University of Montana.