David E. Stubblefield, president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Best Corp., will retire in January. Stubblefield joined ABF in 1959 as a sales representative. Prior to becoming president and CEO, he was senior vice president for marketing for 15 years. He will be succeeded by Robert A. Davidson, currently vice president of marketing and pricing. Davidson has been with ABF since 1972.

FedEx Freight has named Debra Phillips managing director of communications. Phillips previously served as executive director of NASSTRAC, the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference. She will be responsible for all internal and external communications for the Memphis, Tenn.-based group of regional LTL carriers.

ALK Technologies Inc., a provider of transportation management and analysis software, has named Garrett Dreier chief executive officer. Dreier most recently served as president and CEO of Starbak Communications and has held executive positions at Lucent Technologies, Geographic Data Technologies and Etak Information Group. ALK also appointed Edward Siciliano as vice president, sales and marketing. Siciliano previously held sales and marketing positions at AppliedTheory Corp. and at Xerox Corp.

Neptune Orient Lines has appointed Hans Hickler as chief executive officer of its APL Logistics subsidiary. Hickler moves over from the position of group chief information officer for Singapore-based parent company NOL Group. He will be succeeded by Cynthia A. Stoddard, who also will retain her current responsibilities as CIO of APL, NOL's container shipping business.