Going Global: Trends and Issues in the World Marketplace

Frederick Smith is the founder, president, and CEO of the Federal Express Corporation. He is known as the "father of the overnight delivery business." On the first night of operations, a fleet of 14 jets took off with 186 packages. In the first two years, the venture lost $27 million. By 1997, the company was worth $16 billion, with 170,000 employees flying a fleet of 584 planes and 38,500 trucks to deliver 2.8 million packages daily to 212 countries. A graduate of Yale University, Smith enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam. The 2007 Manatt Phelps Lecture in Political Science.