Romona Hood Is FedEx’s First African American CEO

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) has a new leader prepping to take the reins: Romona Hood. After beginning her career as a receptionist and working her way up through the company for nearly 30 years, Romona Hood has become FedEx’s first African American CEO. She will be overseeing FedEx’s Custom Critical division.

A Look at Hood’s Background and Her Journey Within FedEx

After starting off as a receptionist with FedEx when she was 19 years old in 1991, Hood earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Walsh University, and her Executive MBA from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to assuming her current role, Hood headed up a subsidiary of the company called FedEx Truckload Brokerage, and then transitioned into an officer position at FedEx Supply Chain in 2016. She then returned to FedEx Custom Critical, where she most recently served as the company’s VP of Operations, Strategy.

While Hood’s promotion might seem obvious when looking at her credentials, she didn’t exactly plan on becoming the first African American CEO of FedEx. When interviewed about the recent appointing, Hood provided a quote on the matter:

“I wasn’t thinking this was going to be my career and I’d be here for 28 years,” she said. “I wanted a job that had a stable shift that would allow me to do (college) courses as appropriate.”

Mrs. Hood Joins a Highly Exclusive Club of African American CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies

Now that FedEx has appointed Mrs. Hood to CEO, she joins a highly exclusive club of African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. According to Fortune Magazine, at the start of 2018, only three CEOs of all the Fortune 500 companies were black. That startling figure represented a mere 0.06% of all the CEOs of companies that make up the Fortune 500…and unfortunately, today is still not much better.

Therefore, Hood’s recent promotion doesn’t just mark a huge shift within Fedex. It’s also a major win for diversity in the business community as a whole.