FedEx founder and executive chairman Frederick Smith has died, CEO tells staff

FedEx Corp’s founder and former CEO Frederick Smith, who started the global delivery conglomerate with more than a dozen planes in the 1970s, has died, the company’s CEO Raj Subramaniam said in memo to staff posted on its website on Saturday.

Born in 1944, Smith was most recently serving as the firm’s executive chairman and focused on board governance, as well as issues of global importance, including sustainability, innovation and public policy, according to his profile on FedEx’s website.