Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> March 20, 2000
PETER LYTLE is Chairman of the Board and CEO of United Shipping &
Technology, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. US&T is the parent company
of Corporate Express Delivery Systems, which it acquired in September
1999. The company is the largest, most comprehensive provider of same-
day delivery and logistics services in North America. Mr. Lytle is also
the Founder and a Senior Partner of the Business Development Group, a
strategic development/capital investment and repositioning firm in
Minneapolis. He joined US&T, then called U-Ship International, in 1998.
Since that time, through an aggressive acquisition and branding
strategy, he has grown the company tremendously, with sales increasing
from approximately $2 million to over $600 million over the past 18
months. Mr. Lytle has more than 20 years of business management and
development experience. Through the Business Development Group, Mr.
Lytle has worked with a number of corporate clients, including Pfizer,
Johnson & Johnson, and Foremost Farms. Most recently, he served as
Chairman and CEO of Primo Piatto, Inc., the nation's third largest pasta
producer. Mr. Lytle successfully turned the company around and merged it
with Dakota Growers Pasta Company. Previously he held a variety of
senior management positions with Land O' Lakes, Inc., the Beatrice
Companies, and Allied International. His experience includes technology
management, product development, marketing, operations, and mergers and
acquisitions. Mr. Lytle graduated from the University of Northern Iowa.
He has additional education and training in business management and
technology from the University of Iowa, University of Minnesota,
University of Illinois, and CalTec. He is Chairman of the Board of Pink
Business Interiors, Inc., and North American Heritage Brands, Inc. He
sits on the Board of Directors of AGT, Inc., and of Humanetics, Inc., a
biotechnology company he founded in 1989. Mr. Lytle is an international
speaker, addressing such topics as strategic planning, strategic data
collection mapping, and the future of technology in business. He has
received numerous awards for his accomplishments in business development
and product engineering, including the DuPont Award and the Gorman
Award, for technology advancements relating to packaging and food
processing, respectively. Profile
set the stage for our readers?
Mr. Lytle: United Shipping & Technology was formed in the late 1980's.
It went
