Prior to working at Delta in 2001, he was vice president and director of the Boston Consulting Group and held various management roles at its Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Atlanta offices.

[7][8] In 2014, Whitehurst was selected as the recipient of the NC State Park Scholarships program's William C. Friday Award.

[9] He graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics.

[6] He was appointed by then-CEO Gerald Grinstein in 2005 as chief operating officer, where he oversaw the company's bankruptcy and recovery from an attempted takeover from US Airways.

[4] Whitehurst's first book, The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance, was published in 2015 by Harvard Business Review.