not too shabby a time to be negotiating a contract with the man....


Fred Smith makes Forbes' billionaire list
Memphis Business Journal - 11:08 AM CST Friday

FedEx Corp.'s chairman, president and CEO Frederick Smith was ranked No. 365 on Forbes' 2006 list of the world's richest people, with a net worth of $2.1 billion.

Smith's self-made fortune was made through his Memphis-based shipping giant. His annual pay is $4.62 million.

Bill Gates, worth $50 billion, tops the list, followed by Warren Buffet. The list has 746 billionaires from around the world, starting at a net worth of $1 billion.

A resident of Memphis, Smith graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis outlining overnight delivery service. He served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966-1970.

Smith launched Federal Express in 1973. FedEx (NYSE: FDX) is now the world's biggest overnight freight service with $31 billion in annual revenues.