Proud Products of Texas Public Schools
David Samuel "Sam" Coats
Harlingen High School
Harlingen CISD
Sam Coats has more than 25 years of diverse domestic and international corporate leadership experience. He has served as CEO of two publicly held airlines and four non-airline companies, each faced with difficult financial and cultural challenges. He has also served in senior management positions at four other airlines, including Southwest Airlines. He was a senior vice-president at Continental Airlines during one of the most dramatic financial turnarounds in aviation history.
Coats also has a long history of civic leadership in Dallas. He is a past chairman of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. He has served on the boards of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas County Salvation Army, Circle Ten Council Boy Scouts of America, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum. He chaired a long-range water study for Mayor Annette Strauss in 1989 and has served on the Dallas Civil Service Advisory Board.
In June of 2004, the Board of Schlotzsky’s, Inc., recruited Coats to step in as CEO in an attempt to save the company from a franchisee revolt and financial collapse. During the next eight months he successfully led Schlotzsky’s through a difficult and litigious financial restructuring. Coats’ leadership efforts are widely credited with saving the company, preserving the investments of hundreds of Schlotzsky’s franchisees, saving thousands of restaurant jobs, and giving Schlotzsky’s a new lease on life.
Coats currently serves on the boards of Texas Industries, Inc., Safety-Kleen Holdco, Inc., the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation, station KERA, and the Valley International Airport Board in Harlingen.
“When you are born on a dirt road outside of Harlingen, Texas, to parents of very limited economic means (we were poor), it is easy to limit your expectations in life. Fortunately, my family and my Harlingen teachers never permitted me to do that. I was always taught that with a good education and a willingness to work hard, I could accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish. I was also taught how fortunate I was to be born in this great nation. Not once in the years after graduating from Harlingen High School have I felt unable to compete and be successful. I will always be indebted to and grateful for the wonderful teachers that Harlingen schools gave me the opportunity to know and from whom I gained so very much.”
— Sam Coats