Horizon Air names new vice president flight operations and new vice president of finance and planning

Horizon Air's board of directors have elected Captain John Hornibrook vice president of flight operations and Brooke Vatheuer vice president of finance and planning.

Hornibrook will oversee Horizon's 700 line pilots and system operations center. A 26-year Alaska Airlines pilot with 16,000 hours of flight time, Hornibrook has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility. Most recently, he served as managing director of flight operations at Virgin America, overseeing integration efforts with Alaska. As system chief pilot and managing director of line flying at Alaska for five years, he oversaw more than 1,800 line pilots across four bases along the West Coast and Anchorage, Alaska. In addition to serving as Air Line Pilots Association Council 67 committee chairman, Hornibrook was also chairman of ALPA's Central Air Safety Committee, Training Committee and Training Board Committee.

"John's transformative leadership style, safety mindset and ability to work collaboratively between management and union leadership, make him extremely well-suited to lead flight operations at Horizon," said Horizon Air President and CEO David Campbell. "His vast industry knowledge will strengthen our efforts to hire and retain the best pilots and position the company for success for years to come."

As vice president of finance and planning, Vatheuer will be responsible for Horizon's financial planning and analysis, forecasting, business strategy and execution, process management, process improvement and employee communications activities.

Most recently, Vatheuer served as managing director at Alaska – overseeing internal audit and enterprise risk management for both Alaska and Horizon. Vatheuer joined Alaska Airlines in 2007 in the internal audit department and served as internal auditor, lead internal auditor, internal audit manager and director of internal audit.

"Brooke has proven to be a rising star," Campbell said. "Her strong command of the financial and operational drivers of our airlines, coupled with her ability to roll-up her sleeves to understand issues and opportunities, will be invaluable as we take time to reset our operations and better position Horizon for consistent performance and sustainable growth."

Prior to joining Alaska, Vatheuer served as an auditor for Deloitte, a global public accounting firm. She holds both a master of professional accounting and a bachelor of business administration from the University of Washington.

Prior to joining Alaska Airlines in 1991, Hornibrook flew regional airline aircraft for Great Lakes Aviation and was an instructor at Buffalo Aviation, a small fixed-base operator in Buffalo, Minnesota. He earned a bachelor's degree in aviation technology from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, and will graduate with a master's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2018.

Hornibrook holds type ratings in the Beechcraft1900, McDonald Douglas MD-80 and Boeing 737.

Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 40 million guests a year to 118 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners, guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Satisfaction Study for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service and unmatched reliability at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).