doesn't seem fazed. Sure, the terrorist attacks of

Sept. 11 compounded the problems of an industry already

limping from a slowing economy. And sure, these woes put

an end to the Houston airline's streak of six

consecutive years of profits and raise questions about

whether the $9.9-billion Continental which has been near

bankruptcy twice already can hang in there again. But

Misner, a former Marine who was tapped as CFO of the

nation's No. 5 airline in late November, sees a

brighter future.

[Sept. 11] flipped us

from being profitable to showing operating losses, says

Misner, 48. The

first few days, we were burning about $30 million a day

in cash. We're now somewhere in the range of $3

million to $4 million a day. That's not quite as bad

as it sounds on the surface, because December is

typically a slow month, and we would expect to burn from

$1 million to $1.5 million anyway. So we're closing

the gap.

Returning

To Profitability

Indeed, with the

exception of Continental and Southwest Airlines, every

other airline had been operating in red ink well before

the terrorist attacks. And even in the third quarter,

Continental was able to eke out a small profit<$3

million, thanks largely to a $243 million federal grant

associated with the bailout of the airlines. Without the

aid, Continental would have posted a loss of $97

million. Everybody

is unprofitable now, [though] there are those in a much

more severe condition than others, says Misner, a

six-year Continental veteran. A

number were losing large sums of money before Sept. 11.

We were profitable through the first eight months of

this year and believe we will turn the corner in March

of next year, both from a P&L and a cash

perspective.

Helping matters is that

demand for air travel is returning to what it had been,

Misner says, with March looking particularly bright,

thanks to spring-break travel to Florida, Europe and

Mexico. The

load factors we're running now the number of people

getting on a plane have recovered from Sept. 11 and are

consistent with the load factors we ran at this time

last year, he says. That

shows people are returning, and we are effectively

matching capacity with demand. For November, Continental

reported a load factor of 71.4%, compared with 72.6% a

year earlier. The week after the attacks, the load

factor sank to 50%, despite the fact that Continental

slashed the number of flights it operated by 32%.

But even if demand

rises, Continental isn't out of the woods entirely. Between

insurance, which has escalated incredibly, and security,

our incremental costs over and above our base line are

somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million to $200

million for 2002, he says.

For now, Continental has

about $1 billion cash on hand, plus government grants

totaling about $420 million, $172 million from a recent

equity offering and, if needed, $900 million in

government-loan guarantees. We

will continue to look opportunistically at the capital

markets to see if there are any ways to access them

efficiently, but we are not overly concerned at the

moment about near-term cash balances, he says. We

have sources of capital now in the event that we can't

generate sufficient funds from operations.

FOR

COACH CFO, IT'S ALL IN THE BAG

With an economy deep in

recession and holiday sales falling short of even

somewhat tempered expectations, newly appointed CFO

Michael Devine is still sanguine about the prospects for

Coach Inc. Indeed, to listen to him is to hear a finance

chief who seems very glad he landed at the $616-million

New York-based leather goods retailer. The magic words

for Devine seems to be cash flow, and at Coach that

seems to be its rabbit in the bag.

Fortunately, I have come

into a company that can withstand the economy and

produce positive cash flow, says Devine, who joined

Coach after serving as CFO of Mother's Work, the

nation's largest maternity apparel retailer. He points

out that Coach's balance sheet is so healthy that he

isn't even considering tapping the capital markets,

even with lower interest rates. This

organization has done a nice job of controlling gross

margin rates by keeping a lid on expenses.

This is not to say that

even a luxury brand as strong as Coach is immune from

the throes of an economic slowdown or the blight on

sales caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks (Indeed,

Coach even had a store in the World Trade Center

concourse). The company reported that same-store sales

fell 15% between Sept. 11 and Sept. 29, but were down

just 6% between Sept. 29 and Oct. 21, which Devine sees

as a sign that the economy is recovering.

We are not all the way back, he says. However,

we are much stronger today than we were 30 days ago, and

certainly stronger than 60 days ago.

David Kelsey was named

CFO of Saddle Brook, N.J.-based Sealed Air Corp. He

joins the $3-billion packaging concern from Oglebay

Norton Co., a Cleveland-based industrial metals and

minerals mining company, where he was CFO. At Sealed Air

Kelsey, who spent 20 years at General Electric,

including 14 at GE Capital, replaces Daniel Van Riper,

who stepped down after three years. Meanwhile, Oglebay

Norton named Julie Boland to replace Kelsey as CFO. She

had been a vice president of credit risk management at

Goldman Sachs International.

Vicky Miller was named

CFO of Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc.,

succeeding Wayne Pace, who became finance chief of

Turner Broadcasting parent AOL Time Warner. Miller, 52,

was most recently CFO of the Turner Entertainment Group,

and joined Turner in 1991 after working at BancOne's

Bonnet Resources Corp. as CFO.

Thomas Liston has

returned to Phoenix-based PETsMart Inc. as its interim

CFO, replacing Jim Daniel, who stepped down after five

months in the job. Liston, 63, had been interim CFO from

February to June, when Daniel joined the pet supply

retailer. Before that, Liston was treasurer, secretary

and vice president of finance at Little Switzerland Inc.

Daniel, 54, will continue to work with the company and

other clients as a financial consultant. Meanwhile,

controller Brian Miller, 38, was named chief accounting

officer.

South Jersey Industries

Inc., named David Kindlick CFO and treasurer, and

promoted him to CFO from treasurer of the $515-million

energy services holding company's principal

subsidiary, South Jersey Gas Co. Stephen Clark will

replace Kindlick as treasurer of New Jersey Gas and

remain director of investor relations of SJI. Kindlick,

47, joined the Folsom, N.J.-based concern in 1979, while

Clark arrived in 1997.

Ziff Davis Media Inc.

named Bart Catalane CFO and chief operating officer. The

CFO post has been empty since Robert Madore resigned in

April. Catalane, 45, joins the $441-million, New

York-based Internet and publishing company from TMP

Worldwide Inc., which operates Internet job-search site

Monster.com, where he was CFO.

Alliance Fiber Optic

Products tapped 38-year-old Phil Rehkemper as CFO.

Before joining the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based supplier of

fiber optic components and integrated modules, Rehkemper

was corporate controller at Calient Networks Inc. Before

that, he held senior positions, including controller, at

Hewlett-Packard Co.

Ariba Inc., named Jim

Frankola CFO, replacing Robert Calderoni, 42, who was

promoted to president and CEO of the $400-million

Sunnyvale, Calif., software company. Frankola, 37, had

been vice president, finance and business development,

for Fasson Roll Worldwide, a unit of office and

packaging products maker Avery Dennison Corp. Before

that, he held finance positions at IBM.