David Abney
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UPS
David Abney was elected to the Northrop Grumman Board of Directors in 2020.
Abney was the executive chairman of the UPS Board of Directors from June until September 2020. He served as CEO of UPS from 2014 until the end of May 2020, and was appointed chairman of the board in 2016. Prior to his role as chairman and CEO, Abney served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. As COO, he oversaw logistics, sustainability, engineering and all facets of UPS’s global transportation network, serving more than 220 countries and territories with a ground fleet of 125,000 vehicles and an air fleet of more than 500 aircraft, and operating major air hubs in Louisville, Kentucky; Cologne, Germany; and Shenzhen, China.
Before serving as COO, Abney was president of UPS International, leading the company’s strategic initiative to increase its global logistics capabilities. During his career, Abney also was involved in a number of global acquisitions, including the Fritz Companies, Stolica, Lynx Express, and Sino-Trans in China. Earlier, Abney served as president of SonicAir, a same-day delivery service whose 1995 acquisition by UPS signaled UPS’s move into the service parts logistics sector. Abney began his UPS career in 1974 as a part-time UPS package loader in a small facility in Greenwood, Mississippi, while attending Delta State University.
Abney serves as a trustee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Delta State University Foundation and the Mississippi State University Foundation. He is a member of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. He also serves on the boards of Freeport-McMoRan and Target Corporation.
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