Ryder Names Chief Operating Officer and New Chief Financial Officer

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Ryder Names Chief Operating Officer and New Chief Financial Officer

2024-12-17 05:36 Last Updated At：05:51

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 16, 2024--

Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R), a leader in supply chain, dedicated transportation, and fleet management solutions, today announces the appointment of John J. Diez to president and chief operating officer (COO), effective January 1, 2025. In this new role, Mr. Diez will continue to report to Ryder Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert E. Sanchez with responsibility for the general management of all business operations of Ryder’s three business segments.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241216030723/en/

In addition, Cristina Gallo-Aquino, most recently senior vice president, controller, and principal accounting officer since August 2020, has been promoted to succeed Mr. Diez as executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), effective January 1, 2025. In this role, Ms. Gallo-Aquino will oversee all of Ryder’s financial management functions, including finance and accounting, treasury, tax, audit, investor relations, and continue to serve as principal accounting officer.

“At Ryder, we have a commitment to talent development at all levels in our organization. This includes providing leadership opportunities in positions that broaden our team’s capabilities through rotational assignments, as well as providing roles of increasing responsibility that contribute to the long-term progress and stability of our company,” says Mr. Sanchez. “These appointments are an example of that commitment. Both executives bring a powerful combination of industry knowledge to their new roles, complemented by a deep understanding of Ryder’s overall business operations and how our business units collaborate.”

During his 22-year tenure at Ryder, Mr. Diez has held a variety of senior business and financial management roles with increasing responsibility. Prior to his current role serving as the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer since May 2021, he was president of Ryder’s FMS business, leading all areas of global fleet operations, as well as president of the company’s DTS business unit where he led strong revenue growth and improved business returns.

Ms. Gallo-Aquino joined Ryder in 2004 and has extensive financial and accounting experience. Prior to her current role, she served as vice president and chief financial officer for the company’s FMS business unit and vice president and corporate controller.

NOTE: Headshots of Mr. Diez and Ms. Gallo-Aquino are available in the Ryder Newsroom and via BusinessWire.

About Ryder System, Inc.

Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R) is a fully integrated port-to-door logistics and transportation company. It provides supply chain, dedicated transportation, and fleet management solutions, including warehousing and distribution, contract manufacturing and packaging, e-commerce fulfillment, last-mile delivery, managed transportation, professional drivers, freight brokerage, nearshoring solutions, full-service leasing, maintenance, commercial truck rental, and used vehicle sales to some of the world’s most-recognized brands. Ryder provides services throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. In addition, Ryder manages nearly 250,000 commercial vehicles, services fleets at 760 maintenance locations, and operates nearly 300 warehouses encompassing more than 100 million square feet. Ryder is regularly recognized for its industry-leading practices; technology-driven innovations; corporate responsibility; environmental management; safety, health and security programs; military veteran recruitment initiatives; and the hiring of a diverse workforce. www.ryder.com

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements and information included in this news release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on our current plans and expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Accordingly, these forward-looking statements should be evaluated with consideration given to the many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including those risks set forth in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors or to assess the impact of such risks on our business. Accordingly, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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Trump administration says it's freezing child care funds to Minnesota after series of fraud schemes

President Donald Trump's administration announced on Tuesday that it is freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of fraud schemes involving government programs.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back on X, saying fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O'Neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation by going to unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

There have been years of investigations that included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program schemes are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants," he said in a video posted on X. "Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

Adams said he spoke Monday with the director of Minnesota's child care services office and she wasn't able to say "with confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there’s fraud stretching statewide.”

Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somalia diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.