A message from UPS CEO Carol B. Tomé

“Today we mourn the loss of Oz Nelson, our CEO from 1990 to 1996, and a truly visionary leader. Oz helped transform our company into a global logistics powerhouse, aggressively expanding service offerings and connecting customers around the world.

Starting in 1959 as a sales and service representative, Oz had spent more than three decades with the company when he took over as CEO, and he understood just how quickly customer needs were changing.

Oz championed innovative technologies, like our real-time package tracking systems and the handheld scanning devices our drivers use today. He also spearheaded our entry into the world of logistics, permanently expanding our expertise beyond package delivery and paving the way for our current customer first strategy.

We also remember Oz for leading with his heart. He was deeply committed to people – UPSers and customers around the globe – and the communities where we live and serve, driving the company’s philanthropic and volunteer efforts to new heights.

Oz served in leadership roles for numerous nonprofits, including the CDC, the Carter Center, United Way of America, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and he made significant contributions to education reform in Kentucky.

We owe Oz a debt of gratitude for his exemplary leadership, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones during this difficult time. Our thoughts are with them as we remember the enduring legacy he leaves behind.”

More about Oz:
Oz began his career at UPS in 1959, two days after he graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He was hired as a sales and service representative and spent most of his career focusing on the customer and the market. In fact, he helped UPS reach a significant new market, leading the team that established our first operation outside North America in West Germany in 1976.

A year after becoming Chairman and CEO in January 1990, Oz called for a bold vision at the 1991 Leadership Conference – one that would guarantee a “future filled with the right mix of new service features, new services, and the additional revenues and opportunities needed to keep UPS a dynamic, growing organization.” He also introduced a new corporate mission and strategy outlining four points of focus that still drive us today: customers, employees, shareowners and communities.

During Oz’s tenure, UPS began “moving at the speed of business,” introducing service offerings that prioritized speed, like UPS Next Day Early A.M., Saturday delivery and even same-day delivery through the acquisition of SonicAir. A new portfolio of pan-European services, including next-day delivery for domestic and transborder shipments and guaranteed morning deliveries, also launched.

But Oz knew that customers needed more, so he set the course for developing sophisticated technology that delivered bundles of information about shipments to UPS and to customers. By introducing the DIAD, with its handheld scanner, GroundTrac and UPS.com, customers could “see” their packages moving through UPS’s system for the first time. And UPS could “talk” with drivers on road about traffic and last-minute pickups.

Oz also understood that to really grow the business, we needed to do more than move packages – we needed to provide customers with solutions that improved their business along all points of the supply chain. Oz helped begin the shift of UPS’s image from carrier to trusted logistics partner, with a host of innovative, tech-savvy, integrated solutions.

In 1991, Oz relocated the corporate headquarters from Greenwich, Connecticut to Atlanta, where the company has since established deep roots.

Oz also led UPS efforts in another key area – community service. He helped us realize that community is made up of the customers we serve, and he solidified our reputation as a responsible corporate citizen committed to giving back through dollars and deep community involvement.

Oz served in leadership roles for numerous nonprofits, including chair of the CDC Foundation, the Carter Center and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and national director for United Way of America. He also made significant contributions to education reform in Kentucky, where he was actually the very first UPS employee in 1963, establishing service in Louisville, now home to Worldport, our largest global air hub.