His work was the subject of his thesis while studying at university: Who is Frederick Smith?

He made his company successful with his Overnight service and worldwide computer network. Smith comes from a wealthy family from Memphis, Tennessee. His father was the largest partner in the bus company Greyhound. Smith studied economics at Yale University in New Haven in the 60s.

Smith, who liked writing letters, chose the topic "Establishment, Design and Operation of a Private Transportation Service" for his thesis because he was disturbed by the slow processing of the mail.

Frederick Wallace Smith (born August 11, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor. He is the founder and chairman of FedEx Corporation, the world's largest transportation company. On June 1, 2022, Smith stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman, and was replaced by Raj Subramaniam. He is considered one of the most successful transportation entrepreneurs in the world.

Since the postal service was a state monopoly, Smith developed the outlines of a hitherto unknown branch. His work was not taken into consideration by his professors and he was able to pass the exam with a "only passing" grade. After completing his university education, Smith enlisted in the Army and served as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War. After returning to the USA, he traded second-hand private planes.

He devoted his free time to developing the topic he studied in his thesis and planning a special postal service. Smith needed millions of dollars to establish such a service because his aim was to provide a service that operated smoothly throughout the country from the very first moment, and in order to achieve this, he had to purchase transport trucks and planes.

Smith demanded payment for his share of the inheritance and also persuaded his sister to join him with several million dollars. In addition, with the participation of many banks, insurance companies, and industrial enterprises, he founded the Federal Express (FedEx) company in 1972 with an initial capital of 90 million dollars and purchased a fleet of jets.

Considering its commercial benefits, he chose Memphis as his company headquarters. The city where he was born, Memphis, was located in the middle of the USA and was not subject to extreme climatic conditions in the autumn and winter seasons, and the airport did not impose any restrictions on night traffic.

In March 1973, it put the first private night postal service into operation and first established connections between 13 cities. They were delivering the letters and packages sent from these centers to the recipient's address. Smith narrowly avoided bankruptcy for two years. But he achieved success by making a profit of $3.6 million in 1976. Then FedEx grew extremely quickly. In the early 80s, the jet fleet was connecting 75 airports and transporting between 200,000-400,000 letters and packages every night.

Smith guaranteed his customers that if the letter or package they sent was not received by the recipient by 10:30 the next day, he would refund their money. This guarantee explained Smith's reason for charging a higher fee than the fees of the state postal service and the rival company United Parcel Service (UPS).

Moreover, with the unique computer system it installed, it could determine where delivery was in the world at that moment within 30 minutes. Through the computer in each vehicle, the driver had the opportunity to report the package or letter he accepted and delivered.

Smith, who had a creative mind, developed a telephoto copy network in 1984 to deliver documents to their recipients very quickly. However, this service could not hold its own against the fax machines that many companies started using in the 80s. Two years and nearly half a billion dollars in losses later, Smith quit his side hustle and concentrated solely on his core business. In order to provide more effective service, it established two more distribution centers, one for the east coast in Newark/New Jersey and the other for the west coast in Portland/Oregon.