Frederick W. Smith

FedEx hub-and-spoke, service guarantees

Fred Smith founded Federal Express in 1971 and served as its CEO for over five decades before becoming Executive Chairman in 2022. He built FedEx into a global logistics giant by centring operations on a Memphis superhub and offering guaranteed next-day delivery — a service promise that reshaped expectations across the industry. The hub-and-spoke concept originated in his Yale undergraduate paper.