FedEx’s CEO landed his first job by taking a roommate’s abandoned interview

It was 1991, right as Subramaniam was completing his MBA in marketing and finance at the University of Texas at Austin. The Indian-born executive already had a deluge of expertise under his belt, with scientific degrees from both the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Syracuse University. But no one could escape the crushing job market; during America’s recession around the early 1990s, unemployment climbed above 7%, and hiring dropped as employers pulled back. Subramaniam needed an opportunity—and one serendipitously fell into his lap.

“Jobs were hard to come by, and my roommate at that time had decided to go back to India,” the FedEx CEO said during Fortune’s Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast with Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. “When I was walking to the apartment, I heard him on the phone; he’s like, ‘No, I can’t do that,’ and he hung up the phone. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘That’s FedEx calling,’ and that it was for an interview. But he has obviously decided to leave the country.” 

The roommate told FedEx he couldn’t take the interview, and hung up. But Subramaniam couldn’t bear to let the opportunity slip away. He called back the recruiter himself, and asked if he could put his hat in the ring instead.

“I immediately picked up the phone and said, ‘Give me the number,’ and I called over and said, ‘You just talked to my roommate, but he doesn’t want to do the interview, but I am still here. Can I send you my resume?’ And they said, ‘Okay.” And the rest is history.” 

That phone call kicked off a three-decade climb from “the lowest level” of the organization to the corner office.

Subramaniam’s three-decade rise to become FedEx CEO

Subramaniam first moved to FedEx’s global headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, to begin his journey. He got his start as an entry-level associate, and it wouldn’t take long before others took note of his talent. Soon, he earned a reputation for taking on increasingly larger international assignments, eventually relocating to Hong Kong to oversee marketing across the Asia-Pacific region from 1996 to 2003. And he said that his three-decade rise to the top was the result of repeatedly saying yes whenever new opportunities were thrown his way.

“Pretty much every job that I’ve gotten—maybe with the exception of one or so—was somebody [who] said, ‘Yep, I want you to do this’…[I] was given multiple opportunities, and I just took it,” the FedEx CEO said. “It was a great learning experience, whether it’s living in different geographies or doing different jobs.”

He hadn’t even thought about the potential of one day becoming CEO until around the time he assumed the role as regional president of FedEx Canada in 2003. 

“Continuous learning is my thing, and so it was always exciting to take on something new,” the 58-year-old continued. “When I was in a senior role, I realized, ‘Oh, this is starting to look pretty interesting now’…That’s probably when I first thought, ‘Okay, this could lead to something.’”

His career continued to accelerate from there. After nearly three years as the head of FedEx Canada, Subramaniam went from regional boss to taking on global top roles, such as executive VP of marketing and communications of FedEx Corp. In 2019, Subramaniam was promoted to president and chief operating officer, a role in which he steered the company through the pandemic-era e-commerce boom. 

Three years later, in 2022, FedEx founder and former chief executive Frederick W. Smith handed him the reins. The historic succession made Subramaniam the second CEO in the company’s over 50-year history.

Since he was appointed, FedEx’s shares have shot up 102%, outperforming the S&P 500 by 28 points, according to a recent Barron’s analysis. It’s on track to save $2 billion this year alone—double its target—thanks to his cost-cutting strategies. And the company has credited him with helping revolutionize FedEx; revamping its operating strategy, growing its e-commerce business, and putting global supply chain data at the center of its next chapter.

“If someone has aspirations to be a CEO of any company, I think it’s important first of all to truly understand what it is going to take,” Subramaniam advised. “Do they really want it? I mean, that’s a big question. Only individuals have to answer for themselves because there’s a lot of stress and sacrifice that goes with it.”