Chris Pappaioanou was a customer service agent with Great Lakes Airlines at Telluride’s airport in 2001 when he handed his résumé to Mesa Airlines CEO Jonathan Ornstein, who was boarding a plane. Weeks later, Pappaioanou was hired to be Mesa’s vice president of legal affairs. Two decades later, he is one of the most influential and respected lawyers and executives at Irving-based Envoy Air. During the past two years, Pappaioanou negotiated a transformative, industry leading collective bargaining agreement that reversed attrition within Envoy Air’s pilot ranks and attracted hundreds of new pilots to the airline. He also led several legal victories, including the resolution of a biometrics privacy suit in Illinois and a successful resolution to a wage and hour class action suit in California. And he was instrumental in the restructuring of Envoy Air’s human resources and legal departments to better align with the airline’s current needs as it continues to experience growth. But it all points back to the cold Colorado day when Mesa’s CEO saw something special in the guy loading his luggage.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announce that Pappaioanou is one of two finalists for the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department, which is less than five attorneys. This is his story.