CactusCrew

You mean Mitch Nichols and II Morrow Inc ... ?


He accepted a job in 1987 as production manager for Salem, Ore.-based II Morrow Inc., a communications and navigation technology company that recently had been acquired by UPS.
It wasn't a glamorous job. II Morrow was a fledgling company with only a handful of employees trying to develop new communication technologies for UPS and other commercial accounts. One of its most recognizable inventions is the handheld electronic board customers sign when a UPS driver delivers them a package.
After a while on the job, Nichols began receiving calls from technology startups interested in hiring him away from the UPS subsidiary. He seriously considered jumping ship.
That changed after a heart-to-heart conversation with II Morrow's then-president, Scott Davis, who now serves as UPS's chairman and CEO.
"He was very genuine," Nichols recalled. "He just asked that I didn't make any (career) decision without talking to him first because the company was happy with the work I was doing and didn't want me to go anywhere."
That conversation and subsequent encounters with tenured UPS employees convinced him that he belonged in brown.
"Slowly but surely, I started realizing the caliber and quality of people they had working for them," Nichols said. "I knew these were the kinds of people I wanted to work with. I wasn't sure where I was going in my career, but I knew I was on my way."
On the move

By 1993, Nichols had moved his way up to operations manager of II Morrow. His work was enough to catch the eye of his bosses, who summoned him to the corporate headquarters in Atlanta to spend a year working on a special assignment involving ways to use II Morrow's technology to improve communications across the UPS logistics network.
It was the first in a string of moves that took Nichols from Oregon, where he managed ground operations and later assumed the leadership of II Morrow, back to the corporate office in Atlanta for another technology assignment. He then managed ground operations in Georgia.
Nichols returned to the corporate office in Atlanta to help decide the fate of II Morrow, which ultimately was sold to its largest competitor, Garmin Ltd.
"That was tough for a lot of the employees because the company was being sold to its largest competitor," Nichols said. "But it turned out to be a great move. Garmin is doing great today."
On to Louisville

And Nichols isn't doing bad, either. He was reassigned to Louisville in 2000 to oversee aircraft maintenance and engineering, a position he held until March 2007, when he was chosen as the airline's second-in-command behind Bob Lekites.
Along the way, Nichols said, he has taken leadership cues from Lekites, Davis and all of the other UPS executives he has worked with during his two decades with the company.
Nichols, Lekites said, is the "typical UPS-er" because he is "very steady and never loses his composure, even in the toughest of situations."
But he is "not like the typical UPS-er" because he brings a "wealth of experience from startup companies and academia" rather than having spent his entire career with the company, Lekites said.
Despite being a quiet, reserved leader, Nichols "has the unique ability to take a complex situation and bring it into simple terms for someone who does not have the same acumen," Lekites said.
Nichols, 52, said he doesn't know where his journey with UPS will take him next. And he's not willing to make any predictions.
"UPS could direct my career in any direction, and I'd be willing to take it on," Nichols said. "I feel like I have developed a fluency in airline management, and certainly our customers will dictate what we have to be and what our jobs will be."
Don't mess with him

Away from the office, Nichols escapes the stresses of the job by hitting the golf course with his wife, Sidney Nichols.
"Our kids are grown and out of the house, and one day Mitch and I looked at each other and said, 'What are we going to do now?' " Sidney Nichols recalled. "We decided we'd take up golf."
Sidney Nichols said her husband is a perfectionist on the golf course. It might be something he picked up from a former hobby -- tae kwon do.
Nichols attained black belt status while living in Oregon, and he later resumed classes in Atlanta.
Since moving to Louisville, he hasn't had time to pursue it further, but he said the lessons he learned from it help drive him in all aspects of this life.
"It taught me discipline, focus, respect and hard work," Nichols said. "I learned a lot about myself through it."
But Sidney Nichols said people would be hard-pressed to ever hear her husband brag about his martial arts accomplishments -- or his business successes, for that matter.
"He's very accomplished, and he's a good father and a supportive husband," Nichols said. "But most people don't know about all of that because he just doesn't talk about those things."
Mitch Nichols

Vice president of Air Group Operations, United Parcel Service Inc.
Born: Aug. 27, 1955
Hometown: Castro Valley, Calif.
Residence: Hunting Creek, Prospect
Family: Wife, Sidney Nichols; stepson, Steve Long, 37; stepdaughter, Andrea Long, 32
Education: Bachelor's degree in industrial arts, California State University, 1977; master's degree, industrial education, Oregon State University, 1979
Board memberships: Norton Healthcare Inc.; chairman of the Air Transport Association Engineering, Maintenance and Material Council; chairman of the ATA Joint Management Team; chairman of the editorial advisory board for Aviation Week & Space Technology's MRO USA conference.
Awards: Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineering, 1986

navigatro

I guess this means that UPS airlines will be sold to FedEx????

Either that or he will use his black belt skills and karate-chop some manager jobs!

CactusCrew

Nah, FedEx knows there's no value in the airline ...

aflouisville

There might be some slash and burn in 2013

Rocket Bob

Across the board, or just manager ranks. Time to polish up the resume? Nothing bit good times at Brown..

AmericanIdiot#1

If you look at the total # of managers say back in 2005 versus what we have today, the # has been cut in half due to retirements, voluntary departures, etc. The upgrades have also not been matching the Captain retirements we have had this past year. So the airline would appear to be shrinking. Hoping 2013 will see that reversed.

Rocco

Firings? I doubt it. Buyouts? Maybe. Hard to believe anything here till it happens. Certainly not added any "union" workers on the pilot side.

Seems the company is tossing more and more responsibilities to the Chief Pilots. Consolidating. More with less I guess.

brownie

Consolidating. More with less I guess.
__________________
Seems like the new corporate America.

aflouisville

That is exactly what they are doing

nightrider

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