John Spanjers became president and chief executive officer of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. on June 1, 2012. He is responsible for providing strategic direction for the airline operating subsidiaries flying as Delta Connection and United Express.

Prior to becoming president and CEO, Spanjers had been senior vice president and chief operating officer since January 2012, and vice president and COO since Oct. 1, 2011. He was president of Mesaba Airlines when it was acquired by Pinnacle in July 2010 and he became senior vice president of Operations for Pinnacle Airlines Corp.

Spanjers was named president of Mesaba Airlines in September 2002 after becoming chief operating officer in June 2002. He joined Mesaba in November 1999 as vice president of Flight Operations.

Prior to joining Mesaba, Spanjers was the director of Performance Engineering for Northwest Airlines. He also held various other positions within the system operations control (SOC) organization at Northwest beginning in June 1988. Prior to that, Spanjers held various operational positions within the regional and charter airline industry. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and maintains a current FAA Certified Dispatcher License.