DC Velocity - March 2018

newsworthy
Coyote executive suite continues to churn;
COO, CCO have left, sources say
About 30 months after being acquired for $1.8 billion
by UPS Inc. in its biggest acquisition ever, freight broker
Coyote Logistics is experiencing some meaningful executive
churn.
Jim Sharman, Chicago-based Coyote’s chief operating
officer (COO), and John Leach, its chief commercial officer
(CCO), departed in late January, according to multiple
people familiar with the situation. Jodi Navta, who had
been Coyote’s chief marketing officer and its long-time de
facto spokeswoman, left the company in late 2017, these
sources said.
At the same time, sources said that Jonathan Sisler, who
was promoted to president of Coyote from chief financial
officer following UPS’s July 2015 acquisition, has been
skating on thin ice with UPS. One source said UPS has been
trying to convince Jeff Silver, who founded Coyote in 2006
with his wife Marianne, to take a more active day-to-day
role in running the company. Silver, who relinquished the
president’s title but remains its chief executive officer, cur-
rently works for UPS in its Advanced Technology Group.
Marianne Silver remains Coyote’s chief people officer.
One source said that Coyote’s volume during the recently
concluded peak holiday season was disappointing and that
Coyote turned off some of its large and long-time custom-
ers during the peak by focusing more on moving UPS’s
freight than on handling their goods.
An executive close to UPS, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that the Coyote unit is performing well,
that UPS is getting good mileage out of Coyote’s capa-
bilities, and that Sharman and Leach departed because
they sought better opportunities elsewhere. The executive
would not comment on assertions that UPS is dissatisfied
with Sisler’s performance. UPS does not break out Coyote’s
quarterly results, instead folding them into its “Supply
Chain and Freight” unit, one of its three operating units.
CULTURE CLASH?
When UPS acquired Coyote, it was mindful of the stark cul-
tural differences between the two organizations. Coyote is
mostly staffed with young hard-charging employ- p. 26
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