What’s On My Desk: Flexjet President Fred Reid

Fred Reid has maintained a steady hand over the last thirty, often turbulent, years in air travel. He entered the field through marketing and management positions with Pan American and American Airlines before climbing the ladder at Delta (where he was President) and Virgin American (as founding Chief Executive Officer in 2004). Since 2008 he’s been the President of Flexjet, a leader in business aviation that, thanks to Reid, can claim a number of industry firsts in terms of international partnerships (with Korean Air) and one-on-one customer service.

But Reid doesn’t let any evidence of his accomplishments clutter his spartan desk at Flexjet HQ in Richardson, Texas. Here are the items that keep Reid grounded.

• My cheesy plastic in/out trays that I have schlepped over continents, mountains and seas for 33 (!) years. When I get to a new job, and put them on the desk, I am at home!

• My iPad 2. Please keep this confidential, but this device is endlessly amazing, and I don’t want the public to know. (The kid in the picture is fielding a competing falcon in the World Falconry Championships in Qatar last year.)

• My treasured Mont Blanc pens (though I have about 30 stashed around my homes).

• My “A Bar A Ranch” coffee mugs, holding day to day pens and pencils.

• My reading glasses from Eyebobs! Eyebobs rock, and I keep about 12 littered around my two homes.

As often as they’re on the move, power players still consider their desks a professional home base. Our weekly “What’s on My Desk” feature takes a look inside the offices of the country’s most successful businessmen and women.