{"id":31511,"date":"2025-06-22T11:36:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T11:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31511"},"modified":"2025-06-22T11:36:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T11:36:56","slug":"heart-and-soul-of-fedex-fred-smith-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31511","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Heart and soul of FedEx\u2019 Fred Smith dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=f4747942-59c9-49d9-967a-db4ddc59a777\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>FedEx founder Fred Smith, one of the most influential figures in the development of modern logistics, died on Saturday, the company has announced.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, who was 80, stepped down as chief executive of the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a3e69af4-9832-4712-b65a-55bf01a8b231\" data-trackable=\"link\">only in 2022 <\/a>and was still executive chair of the company he founded in 1973 with a fleet of 14 Dassault Falcon 20 jets.<\/p>\n<p>The idea for the service \u2014 widely replicated by other operators worldwide since \u2014 had started as a paper in Smith\u2019s economics degree at Yale, where it was graded poorly by an academic who regarded it as unfeasible.<\/p>\n<p>By the time of Smith\u2019s death, the company was operating 698 aircraft and shipping an average of more than 16mn packages daily.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/investors.fedex.com\/news-and-events\/investor-news\/investor-news-details\/2025\/FedEx-Message-Regarding-Passing-of-Founder-and-Executive-Chairman-Frederick-W--Smith\/default.aspx\" data-trackable=\"link\">a letter<\/a> posted on the company\u2019s website late on Saturday, Smith\u2019s successor as chief executive, Raj Subramaniam, wrote that he was announcing the death with \u201cprofound sadness and a heavy heart\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s key insight was to understand that there was a market for a premium delivery service for express packages that customers wanted to be sure would arrive at their destination next morning. He put at the heart of the service a national hub for the United States in Memphis, Tennessee, which remains the busiest hub in the company\u2019s now international operations.<\/p>\n<p>The system has been widely imitated by other delivery services, including UPS, which set up a similar hub at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>Comprehensive, express delivery services such as FedEx\u2019s have become a critical part of the global economy in the last 25 years as ecommerce has driven huge rises in volumes and demand.<\/p>\n<p>The company has grown to encompass not only the flagship express parcels business but also a range of freight forwarding and logistics services, worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>The company, however, came close to running out of cash in 1975, shortly after its founding. Smith is said to have taken some of the company\u2019s last few thousand dollars to Las Vegas and rescued it by winning $27,000 at blackjack \u2014 enough to pay a looming fuel bill.<\/p>\n<p>Subramaniam wrote in his letter that Smith was \u201cmore than just the pioneer of an industry\u201d and the founder of the company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was the heart and soul of FedEx,\u201d Subramanian wrote.<\/p>\n<p>FedEx last month announced it had signed a deal to deliver select large packages for Amazon, the ecommerce giant, six years after Smith severed ties in protest at Amazon\u2019s decision to build its own logistics network.<\/p>\n<p>Smith regarded as one of the key experiences of his life the three years he served in the US Marine Corps after Yale, including two tours of duty in the Vietnam war, where he won two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for his bravery.<\/p>\n<p>In an address at Yale in 2006, Smith said the leadership taught by the military was \u201cthe best\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Subramaniam\u2019s letter said Smith was \u201ca mentor to many and a source of inspiration to all\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was also a proud father, grandfather, husband, Marine, and friend,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Smith was a noted enthusiast for free markets and globalisation and attributed the company\u2019s success in recent decades partly to its decision to enter Asian markets such as China earlier than other large US corporations.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Young, mayor of Memphis, said that Smith was \u201ca visionary whose ideas reshaped\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the global economy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he founded FedEx, he didn\u2019t just launch a company; he changed the way the world moves,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Kana Inagaki<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/f4747942-59c9-49d9-967a-db4ddc59a777\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}