FedEx Corp. hired John Dietrich, the former head of an aircraft-leasing company, as its new chief financial officer amid a sweeping plan to restructure the package-delivery giant and slash costs.
Dietrich, who has more than three decades of experience in aviation and the air-cargo industry, will assume the new role on Aug. 1, FedEx said in a statement. The company announced in June that current CFO Michael Lenz would be stepping down.
Bringing in an outsider with experience in the air freighter market will offer a new perspective on FedEx’s plan to save as much as $6 billion from deep cost cuts and efficiency gains by combining operations of FedEx’s Express and Ground units. FedEx has been retiring older planes and reducing flying hours as package demand cools from pandemic highs.
FedEx’s Raj Subramaniam began his plan on transforming FedEx, which includes what he called Network 2.0, soon after taking over as chief executive officer from founder Fred Smith in June 2022.
“The evolution of our finance leadership team is critical to our transformation as we continue to build a more intelligent, flexible and efficient network,” Subramaniam said in Monday’s statement.
Dietrich worked at Atlas Air Worldwide for more than two decades and before that spent 13 years at United Airlines. He stepped down as CEO of Atlas after the aircraft leasing company was purchased in March by a group of private equity firms including funds owned by Apollo Global Management Inc. and J.F. Lehman & Co.
