#76/100 in #100extraordinary
FedEx recently made history by appointing Ramona Hood, the first ever African-American woman CEO in the company’s history on January 1, 2020.
Ramona Hood started working with the company in 1991 when she was just 19-years-old as a receptionist. Back then the company was still called Roberts Express. She has operated in various capacities since then, leading the company’s FedEx Truckload Brokerage subsidiary, working as an officer at FedEx Supply Chain and serving as VP of operations, strategy, and planning. 28 years later, Ramona is now a CEO in the organization. She said she never thought she could go this far when she started working at FedEx as a teenager. “I was a young mother. I wanted a job that had a stable shift that would allow me to do [college] courses as appropriate. I wasn’t thinking this was going to be my career and I’d be here for 28 years,” she said. Talent, grit and hard work have all played a role in her rise.
Now she will be leading the charge as head of the company’s Custom Critical division. As a new CEO, Ramona hopes to focus on gaining insight from employees, customers and independent contractors about ways to better operations. She even holds roundtable discussions with smaller groups of employees to really connect with all of the staff, learn from them, and find innovative ways to address customer needs.
Ramona highlights that mentors also were crucial in her rare career path from receptionist to CEO of the 600-employee subsidiary. She explained how she consistently sought the advice and guidance of mentors. In an industry dominated by white men, Hood frequently was a trailblazer in terms of race or gender, and sometimes both. She recounted how seeking the support of Virginia Addicott, who retired as President and CEO in December, was crucial to her ascent. Ramona recalled how she was the only African American on the executive leadership team several years ago.
“For whatever reason, I started to have issues with being the only African American,” she said. “I got the whole head trash, ‘Am I worthy? Did I deserve the seat I’m seating in?’” Ramona said she shared such thoughts with then CEO Virginia, who told her, “I’m a woman, but I don’t know what it means to be an African American person.” Still, she was confident she could help her mentee. About a month later, she scheduled a meeting between Ramona and some African American female executives, including one who owns her own marketing company. “I had nothing to do with marketing, but it was a way for her [Addicott] to connect me with someone at a high level, who looked like me,” Ramona said, adding that she gained a new mentor and friend from the introduction. "It is that level of intentionality that you have to have,” she said. Ramona seeks to head the subsidiary in the same spirit of being deliberate about diversity. “I know what I need to do to move the organization further ahead is be even more intentional,” she said. “I now have a team that has no women on it. I have one African American man. As I add positions to the team, I need to focus on the diversity I’m talking about.”
Ramona Hood felt comfortable confiding in Virginia Addicott. When she met her, Ramona had little work experience and no college degree. She would later earn an undergraduate degree from Walsh University and an Executive MBA from Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management while working at FedEx. But the young woman had already shown promise, including taking the initiative to cross-train and fill-in on other jobs. Early on it was evident Ramona had a “good strategic mind,” wasn’t “afraid to tackle hard things” and took “100% accountability for the outcome of the work,” Virginia said.
“People come into your work life and sometimes you just see things in them,” said Addicott. "It is very clear that the person has the ability, the aptitude to do these things, but they hadn’t been graced with the opportunity. Ramona was one of those people.” She credits Ramona with increasing revenue in the company’s truckload business by 30% while improving margins by 20%.
Ramona succeeded, according to her peers, because she has a head for business, as well as logistics — and sets very high standards for herself, her team and anything put under her charge. “One of the things that makes Ramona very successful is she has a high bar — she has high expectations for herself and everyone around here and that’s very clear,” said Kevin McClellan, managing director for FedEx Custom Critical, which includes Hood’s Truckload Brokerage unit. She’s pretty direct — just ask her, she’ll tell you. “I’m pretty candid with the leadership group and with my team members,” she said.
Ramona’s rise to the top was far from a fluke, but intentional on the part of the receptionist turned CEO. She explains her ability to climb the ladder was due to being “pretty intentional and purposeful with gaining experience” during her time at the company. She was also able to stand out among her colleagues by speaking up and offering fresh new ideas. Her FedEx bio lists her accomplishments and explains that over time, she began offering innovative and strategic ideas that distinguished her from her peers. One of her ideas was a program that would allow employees to work from home. “At that time, it was not common to have call centers where you would have individuals working from home,” she said. “I looked at our processes and the technology that we had, and I realized nothing was preventing us from that.”
Ramona Hood has also succeeded, at least in part, because she’s been unafraid to leave her comfort zone on numerous occasions. She excelled in operations, but was still willing to take on a role in sales — and when she excelled there, she was willing to change again to go into executive leadership.
In her initial days as CEO, Ramona plans to use her “Ramona Roundtables” method to communicate with employees and customers. “The next thing I’ll be doing is going out and spending time with customers and independent contractors,” she said. “I’m defining that as my ‘listen and learn tour.’” In the meantime, she will keep on doing what she does best — improving the sales and profitability of her business unit, mentoring her own associates. And squeezing in some volunteer work and family time in between. Ramona lives in Copley with her daughters, Mariah and Kayla.
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