UPS has traditionally kept a sharp eye on how emerging tech can apply to package delivery, but when CEO Carol Tomé assumed her role last year, she brought a new mandate with her. The company would continue to pioneer new technologies, but every investment would need to bring a proven return, virtually right away.
"We're going for shorter-term paybacks," CFO Brian Newman said on a February earnings call according to a transcript from Sentieo.
The pandemic may have made this job a little easier. With more packages available than UPS could ever carry, Tomé has opted to pick and choose which ones the company takes, based on which packages are most profitable.
Without any worries or doubts about the growth in e-commerce, tech investments are an easier sell. Any tech that can bolster efficiency and up the speed at which packages enter and leave UPS's network is on the table.
So far, UPS has adopted automated sorting, established a drone delivery wing, upgraded track and trace technology for its healthcare service, established a tech-driven on-demand fulfillment subsidiary, piloted robots that can put labels on boxes, embraced electric vehicles, fine-tuned dynamic routing, and instituted training via virtual reality.
UPS has been around for almost 114 years and some of its current executives have seen a quarter of that history. It's a company known for "lifers," much like Walmart.
And also like the retail giant, as new technological skills become essential, that "lifer" culture is slowly shifting at UPS. Many of the executives in top tech jobs have been with the company for decades, but some of the newer talent bring expertise from other industries and deep technological skills.
It's these specialists who will build the tech to give UPS a competitive edge and grow margins even more. Plus, UPS also has a penchant for moving tech talent from department to department in order to provide a wider view of the company. With eyes on the whole business, today's data scientist could be tomorrow's CIO or even COO.
Juan Perez, the Chief Information and Engineering Officer who heads it all, said his philosophy is to "free your geniuses," at a conference in 2018.
Here are the 15 executives leading technology integration efforts at UPS.
Juan Perez is Chief Information and Engineering Officer at UPS. UPS
Perez helms all technology adoption at UPS along with the infrastructure investments needed to make new tech viable for such a vast and complex network of warehouses, vehicles and workers in the field. He's been with the company for 31 years, starting out as an industrial engineer in the 1990s.
Today, he leads the integration of machine learning and advanced data analytics into every element of UPS operations from driver routing to package tracking.
One of the most impactful technologies in constant use at UPS is dynamic routing software, which starting this year will make live adjustments to driver routes, suggesting adjustments based on real-time information.
Perez has overseen UPS's shift into the cloud, which allows internal talent to develop, launch, and iterate new tools faster. And he's heading the company's next phase, which is to harness the voluminous data generated by UPS operations to further improve operations and the bottom line.
Bala Ganesh Vice President of Engineering at UPS UPS
Ganesh has climbed the rungs at UPS from product director for UPS MyChoice to head of engineering. Today he oversees the introduction of emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles, automation and robotics, and drones.
Ganesh led the development of UPS Flight Forward, the logistics giant's drone operation, which became the first company to receive the specific Federal Aviation Administration authorization needed to deliver goods by drone.
Before joining UPS in 2012, Ganesh worked for McKinsey, and spent six years flying fighter planes in the Indian Air Force.
Gregory Brown is Vice President of Research & Development for the Advanced Technology Group at UPS. UPS
Brown has spent his entire 25-year career at UPS, starting as part-time package handler in Memphis, Tennessee.
He rose through the ranks, from engineer to R&D director and now leads strategy development for UPS's adoption of emerging technologies like advanced robotics, rapid prototyping, autonomous systems and vehicles, IoT and sensors, and more.
Before joining the emerging technology team, he was a leading electrical engineer, directing the electrical systems at UPS facilities all over the world.
Myron Wright is President of UPS Flight Forward UPS
Another UPS lifer, Wright was elevated to head of UPS's drone operations in 2019 after 34 years as an attorney at UPS Airlines, where he also worked on unmanned aerial vehicle issues.
UPS Flight Forward received Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certification in October 2019, which allowed the company to deliver by drone anywhere in the US, subject to local regulation. The company just passed the two-year mark making medical deliveries via drone within the WakeMed campus in North Carolina.
More recently, Flight Forward partnered with Verizon to make retail deliveries at the Villages retirement village in Florida. The next step in Flight Forward's evolution will likely be for drones to travel on top of trucks and then make neighborhood deliveries, at the same time as drivers — potentially doubling the deliveries per stop.
Rhonda Clark is President of Global Buildings & Systems Engineering at UPS. UPS
Clark oversees construction, expansion, and maintenance of UPS automated facilities and material handling systems. She's been with the company since 1989, when she came on board as a plant supervisor in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In the intervening years, Clark rose from engineer to manager, and eventually vice president of plant engineering for UPS Airlines.
She moved to UPS's Atlanta headquarters to take the job of chief sustainability officer in 2014, but two years later was pulled back into plant engineering and assumed her current role in 2019. Clark is on the board of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and is executive advisor of the UPS Women's Leadership Development Program.
Carlton Rose is President of Corporate Automotive at UPS. UPS
Rose oversees UPS's ground vehicle fleet, which includes more than 12,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. Pending vehicle orders will add Arrival electric package vans and Tesla heavy duty trucks.
Rose was a UPS loader in Indianapolis in the eighties. He came back to UPS in 2002 to head automotive engineering in the southeast US and rose to manage the company's entire global fleet. Carlton and Rhonda Clark are featured in a book entitled "Black Voices from Big Brown," which recounts the experiences of black workers at UPS, released ahead of Black History Month this year.
Ken Finnerty, Vice President, Information Technology UPS UPS
Finnerty oversees the development and integration of software at UPS. He is also a member of the internal committee that directs UPS technology investment strategy.
In his more than 25 years at UPS, Finnerty has held roles in various departments from UPS Airlines to the customer engagement side of the business. He has been in his current role since 2017. He credits new development tools like the cloud with allowing large companies like UPS to innovate faster and take risks.
Soumit Nandi UPS UPS
Nandi was recently tapped to oversee all customer-facing digital platforms including the UPS.com, shipping, visibility, and billing teams. Nandi Joined UPS in 2020 after 20 years in the airline industry, mostly with United Airlines, where he focused on customer-facing tech and advocated for a simpler digital experience for travellers and airline employees.
He also served as chairman of the International Air Transportation Association's architecture and technology board.
Robin Hensley is Vice President of Information Technology at UPS. UPS
Hensley leads a team of 500 developers and other tech roles to support UPS operations and stores.
She came to UPS after a brief stint as Chief Technology Officer at Tyco Retail Solutions, preceded by 22 years in engineering roles at HP. In her nine years at UPS, Hensley has shaped how the company manages and leverages customer data.
Basford leads UPS's moves to solidify a lead in the e-commerce business. That work often involves partnering with startups to offer new services to e-commerce shippers.
These efforts include launching subsidiary Ware2Go in 2018, an on-demand warehousing company, partnering with Stamps.com for the first time in 2019, and expanding fulfillment services.
Basford came to UPS when it acquired Lynx Express, a UK-based package carrier, in 2005. He held marketing and communications leadership roles for UPS in Europe, until 2014 when he moved to Atlanta.
Mallory Freeman is the Director of Data Science and Machine Learning at UPS. UPS
Freeman is a leader in UPS's effort to leverage the massive amount of data created by UPS's global network into an asset for the company — heading up strategy and implementation of these efforts.
Since 2014, Freeman has held various roles at UPS, all focused on integrating predictive analytics. Prior to her nearly seven years at UPS, she was a supply chain research analyst at the United Nations World Food Programme, while working on her PhD in industrial and systems engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Elizabeth Barayuga is Principal Data Scientist at UPS. UPS
Barayuga came to UPS by way of major US railroad CSX. She joined UPS in 2001 as a developer and has since managed the company's technology vendors, managed large swaths of company data, developed digital tools for UPS's brokerage department, and led data analytics projects intended to optimize operations in the company's European and Asian arms. In June of 2020 she was elevated to principal data scientist.
Luke Wake is Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering for Corporate Automotive at UPS. UPS
Based in the United Kingdom, Wake is part of the team that decides what new technologies will be integrated into UPS' vast road vehicle fleet. He works with vendors, OEMs and technology integrators to realize the company's fleet strategy.
Earlier in his 16-year career at UPS, Wake managed the company's London fleet, eventually rising up to cover Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In 2018, he added South America, Asia Pacific and Canada to his portfolio. This year, he moved up to the global level.
The vehicles in Wake's portfolio include heavy duty trucks, electric assist cargo bikes, non-powered trailers, containers, and equipment for air operations.
Sarah Pennington is Vice President of Digital Marketing and Experience at UPS. UPS
Pennington oversees the UPS customers' digital experience, which she sees as advocating for customers internally. She's shepherded the research, design, content, and user experience of UPS.com. She manages the research and insights derived from data generated by the site itself which are applied to improve the site and contribute to the bottom line.
The experience of tracking a package is also Pennington's territory and she directs design teams to optimize this user experience as well as contributing to the UPS My Choice user experience.
Stu Marcus, Vice President, Customer Technology Marketing UPS
Marcus heads marketing for UPS customer technology including the UPS My Choice program, which has 78 million members. The My Choice membership program allows users to have more control over when their packages will be delivered and updates them in real time via text message or email.
Marcus has overseen the spread of My Choice to Europe and manages the company's partnerships with Shopify and Paypal. He's on the team that managers customer tools for consumers and businesses including importers.
