The board of directors of UPS on Wednesday, Feb. 14, announced the nomination of a new director to stand for election at the annual shareowners’ meeting in May. Gary L. Crittenden, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the American Express Co., assumed those positions in June 2000 and is a member of the American Express Global Leadership Team, the company’s senior-most management group.
Crittenden serves as a key adviser on strategic and financial matters worldwide, as well as representing American Express to investors, lenders and rating agencies. “We are pleased to nominate an executive of Gary’s caliber for election to our board,” says Mike Eskew, chairman and chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based company. “UPS will benefit greatly from his skills and experience in global finance and strategy.”
Crittenden, 53, began his career in consulting with Bain & Company, where he worked on a range of strategic projects in the United States and Germany. Prior to joining American Express, he also worked as the chief financial officer of Monsanto and Sears Roebuck Co. Crittenden holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard. He currently serves on the board of directors of Staples.
In announcing Crittenden’s nomination, the board also disclosed that a long-time independent director, Gary MacDougal, would not stand for re-election in accordance with the company’s corporate governance guidelines. The guidelines state that a director should not be nominated for election once he or she attains the age of 70. MacDougal, former chairman and CEO of Mark Controls Corp., currently is the senior member of the UPS board, having become a director in 1973.
“It is impossible to overstate the contributions of Gary MacDougal,” says Eskew. “Gary brought an essential outside perspective as well as global view to UPS when it was a private, much-smaller U.S. company. And he’s the type of individual who constantly challenges everyone to think outside the box. UPS will miss Gary, and I will miss Gary.”
MacDougal served as the chairman and CEO of Mark Controls from 1969 to 1987. Prior to that, he was a partner at McKinsey & Co., an international management consulting firm. In 1989, MacDougal was appointed by President George H.W. Bush as a delegate and alternate representative in the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. He currently serves as a director of the Bulgarian American Enterprise Fund.
