GEORGE CARRANCHO
Sales and marketing manager
Fort Worth, Texas // 43 

Airlines have been hit harder by the economic slump than most industries, but that hasn’t stopped George Carrancho from loving his job. As the national sales and marketing manager for the LGBT community for American Airlines for the last 4½ years, Carrancho has been responsible for directing charitable contributions and creating relationships with gay organizations such as Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign—and traveling the country doing so. Carrancho’s job is so much a part of who he is, before he took it, he had to come out to his entire family. “My sisters knew, but my brothers didn’t,” he says. “I had to do a lot of soul-searching before I took this job.” It’s a position American has staffed for the past 16 years—it was the first airline to target the LGBT market in this fashion. And though the economy has made Carrancho’s job more difficult in 2009 than in years past, he knows he’s lucky to be able to do something that makes such a positive impact. “I’m never going to be rich, and I knew that going in. But knowing I can help out great organizations and make a difference in the community makes all the difference.”