Three years into his tenure as CEO, he also was named board chairman of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), representing the world’s airlines.

Notably, while at McKinsey, he played a crucial role in the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), the government’s response to one of the most massive infrastructure crises in U.S. history.

In the summer of 1997, he was recruited to Delta Air Lines to become its CEO at a critical time for the airline—facing take-over threats, an outdated technological infrastructure with the Y2K calendar change looming, a weak international alliance, and no functional diversity program.

Reflecting Delta’s increasing commitment to minority inclusion and human rights while speaking at former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s funeral in June 2003, he noted, “When you expand economic opportunity to more people, the circle of prosperity expands with it.”[11] Upon Mullin’s retirement from Delta as CEO at the end of 2003,[12] he embarked on a career as a business advisor and corporate board member.

[3] He and his wife, Leah (née Malmberg), whom he married after her service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (1963-1965), and who is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, are parents of two children.