Freightways Corporation is reorganizing its executive structure to help in its turnaround efforts.

This new organization places the CEO's office and senior management closer to field operations, according to the company, for better information flow and more timely decision making.
"Since I joined CF a month ago, I've been assessing the highly competitive LTL marketplace and the way our company is organized and operates in this market,” says CEO John P. Brincko. “We place a high premium on customer relationships and I'm committed to strengthening this aspect of our business and adding to our customer base. This requires a centralized, focused and highly responsive management structure, enabling leadership to make decisions rapidly and implement them directly.”
The new management organization consists of the following:

• Elimination of the position at the motor carrier subsidiary of president and chief operating officer and creation of a corporate position -- executive vice president, terminal operations -- responsible for the day-to-day management of motor carrier operations, reporting to the CEO. This position will be filled by Robert Warner, a senior executive who has been with CF since 1975 and has most recently served as operations vice president in CF's Central region. Thomas Paulsen, who served as the motor carrier's president and chief operating officer, was offered another senior corporate executive position but chose to leave the company after 36 years of service.

• Consolidation of field operations and the national and local sales organizations into five regions. The operating regions will report to the executive vice president, terminal operations. The national and local sales organizations will report to Martin Larson, senior vice president of sales.

• The appointment of Stephen Sokol to the positions of executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer. Prior to joining CF, Sokol worked with Brincko in various corporate turnarounds. He succeeds Robert Wrightson, who has retired after 40 years of service with CF.

• The appointment of Phillip Seeley to the position of executive vice president of process improvement. Seeley rejoined the company last year as vice president of administration after having managed a logistics-focused venture capital firm and a software consulting company between 1996 and 2001.

Warner, Larson, Sokol and Seeley report to Brincko, as well as Frits Kromhout, senior vice president of marketing, Mark Bunte, vice president of transportation, and Wayne Bolio, vice president of human resources.