Liz Claiborne has been on hard financial times since long before the credit crisis. Company CEO William L. McComb doesn't indulge in luxurious Town Cars and private jets. The Wall Street Journal puts it rather poetically:

At nearly 3 a.m., William L. McComb stands coatless on a chilly airport sidewalk, waiting to collect a rented Volvo. The chief executive of Liz Claiborne Inc. left his midtown Manhattan office about 13½ hours ago, and must lead an important conference call in three hours.

With a corporate jet, "I would have long ago landed and been at my hotel," Mr. McComb says wearily. The boyish-looking executive, who turned 46 Monday, flies nearly 200,000 miles a year, all of them on commercial flights, almost always in coach."

Poor man. We wonder if his staff calls him "Coach Executive Officer" and laughs about it when he's out in a strange cold breeze waiting for his rental car. At least soon enough some other CEOs might start flying coach with him and they can commiserate. Maybe they can even (gasp) carpool.

Claiborne's CEO Crams Into Coach to Cut Costs [WSJ]