Fedex has appointed a black female CEO. Ramona Hood is the first Black woman to hold the top job in the company’s history.
Hood comes with a 28-year career, in Fedex. Prior to her new role, she was the VP operations, strategy, and planning. Hood will manage the company’s Custom Critical division.
Ramona Hood was a 19-year-old single mother when she joined what was then Roberts Express in 1991 as a receptionist. She never imagined she would make a career of her job talkless of coming this far ! Nearly three decades on, she is president and chief executive officer of Fedex subsidiary, FedEx Custom Critical in Green !
Speaking about her corporate journey, she said, “I wasn’t thinking this was going to be my career and I’d be here for 28 years. I was a young mother. I wanted a job that had a stable shift that would allow me to do (college) courses as appropriate.”
Hood is credited with bringing innovative ideas that made her stand out from her peers.
Her history with the logistics company include heading subsidiary FedEx Truckload Brokerage to obtaining an officer position at FedEx Supply Chain in 2016.
Hood later returned to FedEx Custom Critical for an executive position.
Ramona Hood’s Plans:
In the early days as CEO, she is looking to gain useful insights from employees, customers and independent contractors driving for Custom Critical. She has created her famous “Ramona Roundtables,” which she is wrapping up this month. It involved her talking with small groups of employees.
“The next thing I’ll be doing is going out and spending time with customers and independent contractors,” she said. “I’m defining that as my ‘listen and learn tour.’
She also plans to to make Custom Critical a company that will be agile in addressing customer needs and using technology. The company will be “looking at things in ways we haven’t in the past.”
Mentoring young corporate women:
Being a woman and an African American in a white male dominated workplace, Hood had issues in her ascent to the top. She however, leveraged on the experience of mentors and now seeks to help young women through similar struggles through a regular roundtable meeting.
According to Cleveland.com,
Talent, grit and hard work have all played a role in Hood’s becoming the first African American to head a FedEx subsidiary in the company’s 47-year history, when she assumed her duties in January.
Mentors also were crucial in her rare career path from receptionist to CEO of the 600-employee subsidiary, which focuses on business clients, such as wholesalers, hospitals and retailers, she said during a presentation at a Mentoring Monday event on Feb. 24 at Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro Campus.
Hood explained how she consistently sought the advice and guidance of mentors. In an industry dominated by white men, Hood frequently was a trailblazer in terms of race or gender, and sometimes both.
She recounted how seeking the support of Virginia Addicott, who retired as president and CEO in December, was crucial to her ascent. Hood recalled how she was the only African American on the executive leadership team several years ago.
“For whatever reason, I started to have issues with being the only African American,” she said. “I got the whole head trash, ‘Am I worthy? Did I deserve the seat I’m seating in?’”
Ramona Hood holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Walsh University and Executive MBA from Case Western Reserve University.