Tom Poynter Retires
Senior Vice President of Ground Operations spent 23 years with ABX Air
WILMINGTON, OH - Jan. 11, 2008 - ABX Air's (NASDAQ:ABXA) Senior Vice President of Ground Operations, Tom Poynter worked his last day at ABX Air recently and headed off into the ranks of the retired.
"ABX is a special organization," Poynter said. "I was glad to be here, and I am ready to move on." Looking back on 23 years with ABX Air, Poynter has many memories, "but I won't miss the snow," he said. He retired Dec. 31, 2007, and it snowed to start the new year.
Poynter started his career in transportation and logistics with the U.S. Air Force over 42 years ago. As a serviceman in the Air Force, his team was responsible for transportation and supplies.
Shortly after leaving the service, he started with UPS as a driver. "UPS started as a trucking company, and when you started at UPS you started with the trucks," said Poynter. In his 16 years with UPS he held several supervisor and manager positions.
In January 1985 Poynter joined the ABX Air team in Wilmington as the Sort Manager in charge of around 190 sorters and 100 ramp workers. The sort was then moving around of 43,000 pieces of freight each night. "I remember when I came, everything was a challenge - it is still that way today."
He leaves his successor with over 6,400 employees in the Ground department moving over 6 million pounds of freight through the sort in Wilmington combining days and nights, but that is not all.
In the late 80s the first regional hubs were opened. Bleeding freight off the Wilmington night sort was the main objective, but these hub locations would grow into regional sort operations - vital and busy in their own right. Then came the day sort operations. As more customers needed not overnight delivery, but trackable, guaranteed delivery, the day system grew adding second-day service, three-to-five day ground delivery service, and the at-home product working with the U.S. Postal Service.
At ABX Air, Poynter was promoted from Sort Manager to Director of Ground Operations in 1987, and to Senior Director of Ground Operations in 1988. He was selected as Vice President of Ground Operations in 1989 and moved to Senior Vice President in 1993.
Brady Templeton, Vice President of Ground Operations, will succeed Poynter. Templeton, a 15-year ABX Air veteran, will assume all the Ground areas including Night Operations, Regional Hubs, Logistics Services, Ground Quality Assurance and Ground Operations Training. Templeton will report to John Graber, ABX Air Chief Operating Officer.
Poynter is looking forward to retirement with his wife, Priscilla, and their nine grandchildren. "There will be six Saturdays and one Sunday for me to play golf in Florida," he said.
ABX Air (www.abxair.com) is an air cargo services provider operating out of Wilmington, Ohio, and 14 hubs throughout the United States. In addition to providing airlift capacity and sort facility staffing to DHL, ABX Air is a Part 121 operator and holds a Part 145 FAA Repair certificate. It provides charter, maintenance and package handling services to a diverse group of customers. ABX Air is the largest employer in a several-county area in southwestern Ohio.
For more information, contact:
Beth Huber
937-366-2536
beth.huber@abxair.com