Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> June 15, 2000
PETER J. ROSE, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
Expeditors International of Washington, Inc., began in the
transportation business when he was five, wearing an adult-sized
trucker's cap and delighting Montreal housewives as he swaggered up
their sidewalk to deliver packages, with his father watching from the
cab of his delivery van. Those lessons of diligent work, family
encouragement and enjoying the job have stayed with him and are some of
his guiding philosophies as he runs one of the most successful logistics
companies in the country. Expeditors International, which was
incorporated in 1979 and in 1981 opened offices in Chicago, Seattle, San
Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, has grown to include offices
in virtually every time zone. Today, the Seattle-based, $1-billion
company is publicly traded (NASDAQ: EXPD) and employs over 5,200 people
worldwide. He attended Westmount High School and Sir George Williams
University. After putting aside a dream of being a professional hockey
player, Mr. Rose decided to follow his father's career path in the
transportation industry. He went to work for Canadian Pacific, a direct
competitor to his father's employer, Canadian National Express. A move
to Chicago followed, and work as the Inward Traffic Manager with Compass
Agencies; he then became Branch Manager of Harper Robinson and Company.
Harper promoted him to the same position with their San Francisco
office. In 1975, he joined Circle Airfreight's San Francisco office as
District Manager, but returned to Harper as Vice President-Air Division.
In 1981, he was among a handful of men at Harper whose professional
experience convinced them of the demand for an exceptionally customer-
oriented and automated freight forwarder, which also provided customs
brokerage. He began as Executive Vice President of Expeditors and was
named Chief Executive Office within two years. Profile
Washington ' the company's history, services and customers.
Mr. Rose: We started in 1979 as a two-person office here in
