In what has become a trend among top American corporate boardrooms, FedEx replaced its aging CEO with an Indo-American company veteran. Raj Subramaniam will take over from Smith as both CEO and president and Smith will become executive chairman, the package-delivery company said.
NEW YORK – In what has become a trend among top American corporate boardrooms, FedEx replaced its aging CEO with an Indo-American company veteran.
FedEx Corp. said Monday that Fred Smith will step down on June 1 as CEO of the package-delivery company that he founded and be succeeded by the company’s president and chief operating officer, reported NBC News.
Raj Subramaniam will take over from Smith as both CEO and president and Smith will become executive chairman, the package-delivery company said.
“FedEx has changed the world by connecting people and possibilities for the last 50 years,” Smith said in a statement that also praised Subramaniam’s ability to guide the company. Smith said he will focus on global issues including sustainability, innovation, and public policy.
Subramaniam, 56, joined the company in 1991 and served in several marketing and management jobs in Asia and the United States. He rose to become the chief marketing and communications officer, and also served as the top executive of FedEx Express. He became president and chief operating officer in 2019 and joined the FedEx board the following year. He will remain a director.
Smith said that for the past several years he had recommended to FedEx directors that if he died or became disabled they should name Subramaniam CEO and appoint an independent chairman. On Monday, the board appointed a current director, Brad Martin, as vice chairman and Smith’s designated successor as chairman.
FedEx and rival United Parcel Service have benefitted in recent years from the boom in online shopping, which has meant more parcels for its drivers to deliver to customers’ doorsteps. In 2019, as Amazon.com built up its own delivery business, FedEx dropped a contract to provide express delivery for the retail giant, and stopped ground deliveries for Amazon soon afterward.
FedEx was hurt by the trade war with China, and Smith frequently used forums such as the quarterly earnings call to rail against tariffs, making him one of the few CEOs of a large U.S. corporation to challenge then-President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
The company earned $5.2 billion on revenue of $84 billion in its most recent full fiscal year, which ended last May 31.
