The Board of Directors of Southwest Airlines Co. has appointed Jill Soltau as a member of the Board, effective February 15. Soltau, along with the other Board nominees, will be on the ballot for the Southwest Airlines 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Soltau served as the Chief Executive Officer of J. C. Penney Company Inc. from 2018 through 2020. At the time of her appointment at JCPenney's, she was one of 24 women leading a Fortune 500 company. Through the COVID-19 global pandemic, she successfully led JCPenney's emergence from a Chapter 11 restructuring process as a private company.

Soltau previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of privately held JoAnn Stores Inc., from 2015 - 2018. Soltau is an Independent Board Director of AutoZone Inc. and Kirkland's Inc. She is a recent Board Member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) where she served on the Executive Council on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Retail & Business from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI.