“Life is short and it ends, the clock is ticking. Don’t get all wrapped up in your personal self, that’s a very unhealthy thing to do.” - Fred Smith, Founder of FedEx (1944 - 2025)

On June 21, 2025, the business world - more specifically the supply chain world - lost a giant. FedEx Founder Fred Smith passed away at the age of 80.

Frederick Wallace Smith was born in Marks, Mississippi in 1944. According to common anecdotes, he first imagined a company that could provide overnight delivery for an economics paper he wrote while studying at Yale in 1965 - and he got a C because the professor thought the idea was implausible.

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner looks at Fred Smith’s many contributions from five decades in business:

• The risk he had to be willing to take on in pursuit of his vision
• The many innovations that were introduced by FedEx during his tenure
• Why Smith’s perspective on what kind of business FedEx was in was so critical to its success

Links:

• FedEx Ground’s Contractor Woes
• Case Dismissed: Spencer Patton Prevails Over FedEx
• Reading FedEx Ground the RICO Act
• Will FedEx Freight hit the open road?
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter
• Art of Supply on AOP
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement