Nuts About Southwest

Paul Sacco

Manager, Strategic Business Analysis
Member Since 2006

I usually win those ice-breaker games where you have to talk about something unique about your childhood. My parents moved our family to the Middle East when I was only two years old. We lived in Beirut, Lebanon, so I had a front row seat to a raging civil war for much of my upbringing. By the time I returned to Texas to go to college, I had seen most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. After getting a degree in International Relations, I did a five-year stint in the Navy as a linguist. It had sounded great at the recruiter’s office: cruise the Mediterranean, hit the popular tourist spots, practice foreign language skills with the locals. Somehow, cruising underwater for weeks at a time in giant metal cigar cases was not quite what I had envisioned. I made some great friends, though. I started my career at Southwest Airlines in 1998 as a Revenue Management & Pricing Analyst. My job was to make sure that Southwest made a profit while offering the most competitive fares around. Two years later, I was presented with an opportunity to move to a small group called the Interactive Marketing department where I was asked to set up analytics for Southwest’s web site. I figured it would be a good opportunity since the Internet might just become a really big deal some day. Little did I realize at the time that within five years southwest.com would be generating two-thirds of Southwest’s revenue. Today, I continue to work with Interactive Marketing, but I’ve taken on a bit more by becoming involved in Marketing Planning for Southwest.