Trucking industry icon Kevin Knight resigned on Wednesday as executive chairman of the Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings board of directors to step back from the company he led for decades.
He’ll still advise the company through a two-year retirement and consulting agreement, bringing an end to his work with the company that he co-founded in 1990.
Knight co-founded the company bearing his family name with his brother and two cousins, and he served as CEO of Knight Transportation for two decades through 2014 before the company later merged with Swift Transportation in 2017.
“As I have been approaching this transition in recent years, I knew this bridge would have to be crossed at some point,” Knight said in a news release. “For me, our merger with Knight and Swift was our greatest collective achievement.”
In exchange for the consulting and forfeiting of unvested equity awards, he'll get a $10.125 million payment on June 12, followed by another payment of the same amount over a 24-month period, according to a securities filing.
The two sets of Knight brothers founded the company after working at Swift, which included time for Kevin Knight as EVP and president of Cooper Motor Lines, a Swift subsidiary.
Previously, Knight reflected on how Knight Transportation leadership built a truckload company with industry-leading margins, and the combination with Swift sought to create a company with the best strategic position in the industry, realize synergies and maintain Knight’s profitability in the long run.
“The culture Kevin helped instill which prioritizes safety, operational excellence, and financial discipline is deeply rooted and will continue to mark our efforts to take Knight-Swift to new heights,” Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller said in the release.
Meanwhile, the board appointed Lead Independent Director David Vander Ploeg as chairman.
