Executive excellence

Departing Southwest Airlines boss ranks among America's top CEOs

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly at opening of Hobby Airport international concourse

Gary Kelly is one of the top 10 CEOs, according to Glassdoor.

Photo courtesy of Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Chairman and CEO Gary C. Kelly is stepping away from the head honcho role in early 2022, but he's leaving with some new accolades from his employees.

Kelly ranks fourth on Glassdoor’s new list of the top 100 CEOs for 2021. He received a 98 percent approval rating from Southwest Airlines employees who shared anonymous feedback on the Glassdoor platform, which publishes reviews and salary information for employers.

“Over the past year, company leaders around the world faced unprecedented challenges to support employees during the COVID-19 crisis. Now, the employees have spoken and it’s clear that these CEOs excelled and found new ways to support their people when the world of work flipped upside down,” Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor’s CEO, says in a news release.

Kelly is no stranger to the list; in 2019, he ranked 35th in Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards.

Kelly has served as the Dallas-based airlines' CEO since 2004, leading Southwest through some of the industry's most turbulent times. He recently announced he'd be transitioning into the role of executive chairman, to be replaced by executive VP Robert Jordan, effective Feb. 1, 2022.

The Dallas area has one other entry in the top-100 list. Sean Yalamanchi, chairman and president of Richardson-based Infovision, ranks 55th-ranked on the Glassdoor list. He earned a 93 percent approval rating from employees.

Other Texas executives appearing on the new Glassdoor list are:

Third-ranked Dr. Peter Pisters, president of Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center (99 percent approval).
Seventh-ranked Charles Butt, CEO of San Antonio-based H-E-B (96 percent).
60th-ranked Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist (93 percent approval).
76th-ranked Worthing Jackman, president and CEO of The Woodlands-based Waste Connections (92 percent approval).

Notably, H-E-B's Central Market division is headquartered in Dallas. H-E-B customers around Texas adore the San Antonio-based grocery chain, which is rapidly expanding its presence in Dallas-Fort Worth with the building of three new stores.

“Under [CEO Charles Butt's] leadership, the desire to constantly innovate has led to new store concepts, the creation of one of the most successful private-label programs in the country, and the commitment to build out state-of-the-art digital products and services to complement H-E-B’s world-class stores,” the grocery chain said in a 2019 news release about Butt.

Butt is also recognized as an advocate for public education and literacy.

The Butt family is among the richest families in the country, with a net worth estimated by Forbes at $17.8 billion. Florence Butt, Charles’ grandmother, founded the family-owned business in 1905.

lists rankings

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports