Korean Air promotes John Jackson to VP

January 10, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA. — Korean Air has promoted John Jackson to vice president of marketing for the Americas. Jackson was formerly director of marketing at the airline which is the largest Asian airline serving the Americas.

Jackson is the first non-Korean to hold this executive position at Korean Air in the Americas.

Jackson grew up in the airline industry with his mother a flight attendant and his father a marketer for Delta. He actively started his airline career as a campus sales representative with Continental sales in the 1980s at the University of Georgia. After graduation he worked with Delta in planning and maintenance scheduling before joining Korean Air where he was promoted through the sales and marketing ranks in KAL’s offices in Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles.

In 1999, Travel Agent Magazine chose John as one of its ‘Rising Stars of the Travel Industry’, a list of people under 35 predicted to make an impact on the industry.

After nearly five years with KAL, he was recruited by Advanstar Communications and moved to New York where he was responsible for its travel category sales in the Asia/Pacific region, along with global sales for a directory of luxury hotels resorts.

Using his travel and publishing expertise, John then started RB Media, a company that published magazines, newsletters, and a monthly community newspaper.

While he enjoyed success as a publisher, John’s true calling is the airline industry and he rejoined the Asian powerhouse five years ago to lead its America passenger marketing. He oversees those functions in the USA, Canada and South America.

His primary responsibility is to increase Korean Air’s market share in the lucrative corporate and luxury leisure travel markets. He also oversees more than 100 people who handle all passenger marketing and sales functions including reservations, frequent flyer program, corporate and agency sales, internet sales and marketing, advertising, public relations, alliances, and pricing. In addition he coordinates the efforts of Korean’s 13 sales offices and a network of general sales agents (GSAs).

John has a bachelors degree in history from the University of Georgia and attended the University of Denver School of Law and Warwick University (UK) Graduate School of Business. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Travel Association and is married with two children.

Source: Korean Air