Mr. Arpey is CEO of American Airlines. He has over 1,000 employees at his Dallas headquarters with over 100,000 more scattered all over the world. His has a huge legal department to handle all sorts of legal problems including large contracts for the purchase/lease of airplanes. I would not expect him to know of or be a signator of every contract AA signs but I sure as hell would expect a CEO, even one of a company as large as AA, to know of if not sign a contract for the purchase of 500 737-800's; or other legal documents that are IMPORTANT TO AMERICAN AIRLINES.

That being said it is impossible for me to believe a small company with 15 employees would not have its CEO not only be aware of BUT DIRECTING EVERY MOVE OF CREATING THIS CONTRACT AND PERSONALLY SIGNING IT.This would not be a document that would be left up to the public relations officer to sign.