Gil West, CEO, Hertz; Director, Virgin Galactic

Gil West was met with chaos on his first day at Northwest Airlines. The executive who hired him? Fired. The facility? In uproar. His first assignment? Remove the person whose job he was taking. Many would have walked away but Gil chose to lean in. Gil and his handpicked team—some of whom he still works with today—transformed an operation on the verge of shutdown into a success story that would eventually land him a key role in Northwest’s merger with Delta Air Lines. Hear the story of his pivotal first day at Northwest, how the experience hooked him on the challenge of turnarounds, and why after all these years, he still chooses the hard jobs over the straightforward ones.