John Smith Appointed Mike Ducker’s Successor as FedEx Freight President, CEO
Transportation industry veteran John Smith will become president and CEO of FedEx Freight on Aug. 16, moving up from his position as senior vice president of operations at the FedEx Corp. subsidiary. Smith also will serve on the FedEx Strategic Management Committee.
He will succeed Mike Ducker, who is retiring after more than 40 years with the package delivery giant. As head of the freight group, Ducker led FedEx’s North American less-than-truckload companies in addition to FedEx Custom Critical, the unit that focuses on same-day and overnight delivery of expedited freight. Ducker also is treasurer of American Trucking Associations.
Ducker by Bloomberg Finance LP
FedEx Freight has more than 40,000 employees worldwide handling an average of 105,000 shipments daily. It operates about 370 service centers and 20,000 vehicles serving the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Smith has worked in the transportation industry for 32 years. He joined FedEx in 2000 with experience in operations, sales, transportation, fleet maintenance, facility services and safety.
FedEx also announced that Matthew Thornton III will become executive vice president and chief operating officer of FedEx Freight. Thornton has been the senior vice president of U.S. operations for FedEx Express.
“John Smith is a clear choice to lead the FedEx Freight organization into the future. Matthew Thornton has proven himself time and again in his leadership at FedEx Express,” FedEx Corp. President David Bronczek said. “Both are examples of our strong promote-from-within philosophy at FedEx.”
Smith and Thornton will begin transitioning to their positions in mid-May.
FedEx is No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers in North America and No. 8 on the Transport Topics Top 50 Logistics Companies in North America.
