UPS gets new head of U.S. operations

One of the top jobs at UPS — overseeing U.S. operations — is changing hands next month at a time when domestic package delivery has been flat.

Jim Winestock, a 40-year veteran of the Sandy Springs-based package carrier, will retire as senior vice president of U.S. stores in February. In 2007, he was one of UPS’ top paid execs with a total compensation of $1.37 million.

Winestock’s duties will go to Myron Gay, the current chief of regional operations in Canada and Latin America. Both men are African-American.

The post is one of 12 on the management committee and crucial to the company. In the first nine months of 2008, U.S. operations comprised 60 percent of UPS’s gross revenue and 64 percent of its operating profit. And UPS has more than 300,000 U.S. employees.

With a weakened domestic economy, however, UPS has been relying more and more on its overseas business, as well as its growing supply chain and freight division.

Nevertheless, Gray’s job will be to keep everything running smoothly, even as he can’t predict package volumes from day to day or week to week, said UPS spokesman Norman Black.

“This is where the rubber meets road. He’s not the chief salesman. He makes sure everything is running on time and as efficiently as possible,” said Black.

Like many UPS top brass, both Winestock, 57, and Gray, 51, started as package handlers during college.

Winestock joined in 1969 in Florida. He worked his way up through various positions and has overseen U.S. operations for four years.

Gray started as a package handler in Tennessee in 1978. He became a driver in 1984 and assumed command of UPS’ Americas Region in January 2008.

One of Winestock’s major achievements, said Black, was implementing “package flow technology.”

The process helped UPS plan truck and plane loads, as well develop its “no left turn” policy that saves gas and time.

It “literally revolutionized our internal operations,” said Black.

In a lecture to the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, Winestock said UPS’s culture cherishes modesty. “There are no ‘shooting stars’ at UPS, just as there is no executive dining room or corporate jet.”

CEO Scott Davis said in a statement, “It is a testament to the strength and depth of our management team that we have such high-caliber managers who can step up.”