Wilson isn't on the board of the new Northwest; The investor, who took over Northwest Airlines 18 years ago with partner Al Checchi, will leave the airline's board in June. The company's new chairman

Gary Wilson, one of two California moneymen who bought control of Northwest Airlines in 1989 with a little cash and a lot of debt, will leave the board of directors of the Eagan-based carrier when it's set to emerge from bankruptcy in June.

Four other directors, including two union leaders, also are leaving the board, the airline announced Friday.

Wilson, who along with former business partner Al Checchi made tens of millions of dollars from their stakes in Northwest, said in a prepared statement that he's too busy with other business to remain as board chairman. Checchi left the board two years ago.

Wilson will be succeeded as chairman by Roy Bostock, a former advertising executive and current principal in the private investment firm Sealedge Investments. Bostock has been a Northwest board member since 2005.

"I am leaving the board because I believe in term limits and because my other business interests do not allow me sufficient time to continue leading the board," Wilson said in his statement.

Wilson, a onetime Walt Disney Co. executive who narrowly missed guiding Northwest into bankruptcy in the early `90s under the heavy debt incurred in its $3.5 billion leveraged buyout, called the airline a "very resilient organization" that had to resort to bankruptcy in 2005 because of the combination of 9/11, the Iraq war and high fuel prices.

Also leaving the Northwest board is an original investor in the 1989 leveraged buyout, Frederic Malek, chairman of Thayer Capital Partners.

Others departing

Others leaving the board include Ray Benning Jr., a leader of the airline division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; George Kourpias, retired international president of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace workers; Dennis Hightower, a retired Disney executive, and Leo van Wijk, president and chief executive of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The labor leaders were added to the board as part of a 1993 deal in which Northwest unions were granted preferred stock. As part of its bankruptcy, Northwest is paying the unions cash for the preferred shares. One labor representative, pilot William Zoller, remains on the board as part of a labor agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association.

Newcomers to the Northwest board include David Brandon, chairman and chief executive of Domino's Pizza; Mike Durham, president and chief executive of the consulting firm Cognizant Associates; Mickey Foret, a former Northwest chief financial officer who now is president of Aviation Consultants; James Postl, former president and chief executive of Pennzoil-Quaker State, and Rodney Slater, a lawyer at Patton Boggs, a law and lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.

In a prepared statement, incoming chairman Bostock said Northwest is emerging from bankruptcy "well positioned for long-term profitability and growth."

Seven members of the Northwest board will continue in their roles, the company said. They are Bostock, a director since 2005; Zoller, a director since 2006; Doug Steenland, the airline's president and chief executive; John Engler, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers; Robert Friedman, senior managing director of the Blackstone Group, a New York-based private investment firm; Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and Jeffrey Katz, president and chief executive of LeapFrog Enterprises, a toy company based in Emeryville, Calif.

Mike Meyers - 612-673-1746

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