UPS EVP/CCO Gershenhorn to retire after 38 years of service in June

Earlier today, Atlanta-based UPS said that Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Alan Gershenhorn will retire in June. Gershenhorn has been with UPS for 38 years.

Gershenhorn has worn many hats for the transportation and logistics titan, including leading corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, public affairs, communications, and several key growth strategies across the enterprise.  He also has oversight for Coyote, UPS’s truckload brokerage business, and for Marken, the company’s specialty clinical trials and healthcare logistics unit. Previous to his current position, UPS said Gershenhorn led sales and solutions, customer experience and relationship management, segment marketing, product development, electronic commerce, revenue management, marketing research, and other company-wide staffs and initiatives.

Gershenhorn first joined the UPS Management Committee in 2007, when he serves as president of UPS International and was responsible for the UPS international package, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and logistics businesses. And UPS said he has led and played key roles in numerous transformational programs helping to reshape UPS from a $3 billion U.S.-centric ground small package delivery company, when he joined UPS in 1979 as a part-time baggage handler, to a more than $60 billion leader in global supply chain and logistics solutions. 

Other roles Gershenhorn has held at UPS in the United States, Europe, and Canada include Vice President UPS Corporate Strategy Group, where he was responsible for the company's retail strategy and operations worldwide and the integration of Mail Boxes Etc. (now known as The UPS Store); the president of UPS Canada; the president of UPS Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) Global Transportation and Shared Services; and the president of UPS SCS operations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

“Alan’s tremendous impact on UPS is widely known and respected, inside the company and among our global customers, partners and other stakeholders,” said David Abney, UPS chief executive officer, in a statement.  “Alan guided UPS to intensify creation of distinctive customer value and positioned us as a premium service provider who creates revenue-generating insights that help customers succeed.  During his tenure UPS introduced industry-leading new products, solutions and commercial innovations that pioneered the ecommerce era and the customer-centric B-to-B and B-to-C strategies that define UPS’s market presence today.”

Logistics Management Group News Editor had a chance to sit down with Gershenhorn in early May at in Louisville, Kentucky at the Packaging Innovation Center operated by UPS and packaging services provider Sealed Air. A transcript of their conversation is here.