Dive Brief:
- FedEx has named former Atlas Air Worldwide CEO John Dietrich as its new CFO and EVP effective Aug. 1, the company announced Monday.
- Dietrich has over 30 years of experience in the aviation and air cargo industries and has held a variety of leadership roles at Atlas Air, a major provider of air cargo services for Amazon Air. He will succeed the retiring Mike Lenz, who will remain with FedEx as a senior advisor until Dec. 31.
- FedEx President and CEO Raj Subramaniam said Dietrich “is an accomplished and seasoned leader in the transportation industry whose unique combination of financial and operational expertise is a strong complement to the existing executive leadership team at this important time for the company."
Dive Insight:
Dietrich's knowledge of the air cargo space should particularly help FedEx minimize the heavy fixed costs associated with its Express aircraft fleet as it transforms into a more agile and streamlined company.
FedEx has worked to shrink its air cargo fleet to better match its capacity with softer demand in recent quarters. Express retired 18 aircraft in the quarter ending May 31 and aims to take another 29 aircraft out of scheduled flying in FY2024. This helped the company reduce operating costs by $2 billion YoY.
Dietrich will also play an important role in FedEx successfully executing its wide-ranging DRIVE program. DRIVE aims to trim more than $4 billion in costs by FY2025 by improving operational efficiencies, in addition to laying the groundwork for its Network 2.0 plan.
“I am thrilled to be joining the FedEx team to support and advance DRIVE and other important corporate initiatives to foster greater efficiencies, manage costs, and provide innovative solutions that benefit the entire organization,” Dietrich, who ended his tenure at Atlas Air on June 15, said in a statement.
FedEx also detailed additional changes to its finance leadership team in its announcement.
- Jennifer Johnson, corporate vice president and principal accounting officer, is taking on a larger role as FedEx's international accounting teams consolidate into one global group under her purview.
- Leslie Benners, senior vice president of finance and former CFO of FedEx Office and FedEx Services, is heading FedEx's sourcing and procurement with a globally consolidated team.
- Claude Russ, currently COO of FedEx Dataworks and former CFO of FedEx Freight, is joining FedEx's finance team as corporate vice president of finance transformation. Russ will provide oversight and accountability on enterprise financial objectives.
“The evolution of our Finance leadership team is critical to our transformation as we continue to build a more intelligent, flexible and efficient network,” Subramaniam said in his statement.
