FedEx Picks IIT Alumnus Raj Subramaniam To Be CEO. FedEx, the global package and courier services company, ranked 45th on the Fortune list, with $ 84 billion in revenues and 700 aircraft, has picked Rajesh Subramanian to lead the firm.
Subramaniam, 56, has a resume that is increasingly familiar in the US business scape - an engineering degree from IIT and an MBA from a US business school, much like his senior Vivek Sankaran, CEO of Albertsons, America's second-largest supermarket chain, and his junior Sundar Pichai, who heads Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
He's also an insider, FedEx being the only company he has worked for from the time he earned an MBA from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1991.
"FedEx has changed the world by connecting people and possibilities for the last 50 years. As we look toward what's next, I have a great sense of satisfaction that a leader of the calibre of Raj Subramaniam will take FedEx into a very successful future," FedEx Founder-CEO Fred Smith said in a statement announcing the succession.
Even without these embellishments, the Memphis-based company occupies a storied place in American commerce and industry, having pioneered overnight delivery in the 1970s with its promotional slogan "When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there overnight." Subramaniam has been with the company for more than half its journey.
After an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, he moved to the US and earned two post-graduate degrees: a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, before joining FedEx as an entry-level marketing analyst in Memphis in 1991 for a 31-year journey that has taken him to the very top.
In a letter to FedEx's 600,000 employees on Monday, Founder Smith described Subramaniam as a "Brilliant and humble man with great empathy for our various constituencies especially our frontline team members and customers... a gentleman of impeccable integrity and is a consummate team player...(with) a wonderful family and a broad network of friends around the globe." "Given his mix of experience, I can't think of a better executive in the world to take on the role of CEO of FedEx," Smith added.
