FRED SMITH, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, CEO, FEDEX
Legend has it that Fred Smith first broached the idea for express delivery in 1965 while an economics major at Yale. Though he doesn’t remember the grade, the professor is said to have told him that the idea would be worth a C, if it were viable. Born in 1944 in Marks, Mississippi, Smith had transportation in his DNA—from the grandfather who was a steamboat captain, to the father who built a regional bus line from the ground up and sold it to become the southern backbone of the Greyhound Bus System.
Smith served four years in the Marines, from 1966 to 1969, where he had the chance to study precision military logistics as a platoon leader and FAC (Forward Air Controller). Specially trained to fly with ...
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