Purchasing's supply chain manager of the year

American Airlines' John MacLean has expanded purchasing and supply chain management to new heights as he helps pilot the company through some of the worst storms in the industry's history. For his steady hand, team leadership and visionary approach, he is Purchasing's Supply Chain Manager of the Year.

Walk into John MacLean's corner office at American Airlines and you can immediately see evidence of his love affair with airplanes. In this corner, near a picture of his family, is a large photo of a Boeing 777. In that corner: two photos of a Stealth fighter jet. On another wall, an X-ray-like view of a fuselage and engine compartment. Nearby, there's also a propeller blade. And, outside one window is a view of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

But one thing you won't see is any photographic or other reference to the tragedy of 9/11, when terrorists used planes as weapons. He doesn't need anything to remind him. The images and the aftermath are constantly with him, his team and everyone else at American Airlines.

"That event will forever shape every employee who was here at the time," says MacLean, who is American's vice president of purchasing and transportation. And, it was the beginning of the most turbulent decade in the history of both American Airlines and the airline industry in general.

It has been a decade in which the industry has undergone several once-in-a-lifetime crises, says Tom Horton, American's executive vice president for finance and planning and chief financial officer. "And," he adds, "the supply chain team has been right in the middle of every one of them."

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