Since earning his Harvard MBA in 1976, James Lawrence built a 50-year career in business as a management consultant, corporate executive, and board director. On Wednesday, he becomes chair of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC).

DFL Gov. Tim Walz chose Lawrence to chair the MAC, which is a 15-member board that oversees the operations of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as well as six general aviation airports.

“I’m looking forward to working with a tremendous commission staff that operates one of the largest airports systems in the country,” Lawrence said in a Tuesday release announcing his appointment. “That includes MSP Airport, which has earned the highest honors in the industry and provides global travel and business connections that greatly benefit Minnesota.”

Lawrence’s term as chair runs through Jan. 4, 2027. Former MAC chair Rick King retired in November, and commissioner Patti Garland has been the acting chair. Lawrence, who has been leading the MAC’s planning and development committee, was originally appointed to the commission by Walz in 2021.

Lawrence, a major DFL Party donor, has a distinguished business career that includes extensive experience in the aviation industry. Since 1990, he has served as a board director or executive of eight airlines.

His airline board positions included Continental Airlines, Mesaba, TWA, and International Airlines Group, a holding company that includes British Airways and Iberia.

Lawrence moved to Minnesota in 1996, when he became CFO of Northwest Airlines. He reflected on that experience in an article last year published by AIB Insights. The fellows of the Academy of International Business (AIB) named Lawrence their 2025 International Executive of the Year.

Lawrence was recruited to Northwest Airlines by Gary Wilson, who was the carrier’s chairman for many years. Wilson, Al Checchi, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and others bought Northwest in 1989 for $3.65 billion. For many years, Wilson and Checchi were criticized by airline employees and Minnesotans for using a leveraged buyout to complete the acquisition. Within two years, they were seeking financial help from the state of Minnesota. In early 1992, Northwest received a $761 million financing package.

Lawrence arrived at Northwest four years later. “Gary Wilson had been the chief financial officer of Walt Disney Company,” Lawrence said in the AIB interview. “Walt Disney was one of my clients, and he had subsequently bought Northwest Airlines, and he rang me up and said, ‘I want you to come out to Minneapolis to work with me.’ I had by this point been a director with Continental Airlines and TWA, so it sounded like a sensible thing to do.

“It turned out I liked being at the board level of an airline. You know, it’s not an operator role, but it’s good,” Lawrence said in the interview.

“[Lawrence] was CFO at Northwest Airlines when I was the COO,” Richard Anderson, former CEO of Northwest and Delta Air Lines, told Twin Cities Business on Tuesday. “Jim is a wonderful person. He is a good choice to run the MAC.”

Lawrence worked at Northwest from 1996 to 1998 and then served for nine years as CFO of General Mills. Lawrence holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, when Anderson was its CEO, acquired Eagan-based Northwest Airlines in 2008. “We didn’t do a big merger when I was there,” Lawrence said in the AIB interview. “But every conceivable merger which could be done was studied, and eventually one of them, which was very close to being completed while I was there, has come about—the merger of Northwest with Delta.

“While not a merger, but what has become standard practice in aviation, is I negotiated a partnership [alliance] between KLM and Northwest where we were equal partners on all of our routes from Europe to the United States, and vice versa,” Lawrence said. “That now is the industry standard. United is tied up with Lufthansa. British Airways is tied up with American.”

As the new MAC chair, Lawrence likely will begin addressing the ramifications of Allegiant’s plans to acquire Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines. The two carriers expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2026, and the combined airline will be headquartered in Las Vegas.

In 2024, Sun Country’s passenger market share was 11.5% at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It came in second behind Delta at 69.5%. Sun Country operates out of Terminal 2, which has expanded alongside Sun Country’s growth.

Since 2017, Lawrence has been a board director of AerCap, which describes itself as “the world’s largest owner of commercial aircraft, engines and helicopters.” It leases its equipment for terms up to 12 years.

Locally in the Twin Cities, Lawrence is chair of a Minneapolis-based private investment firm.