Walmart's private fleet is absorbing a USA Truck CEO turned autonomous trucking tech advocate.
James Reed, a trucking executive who joined Kodiak Robotics as COO last year, will serve as the retail giant’s VP of transportation development, he said in a LinkedIn post last week.
Reed will remain involved with Kodiak as a strategic adviser and maintain his seat on the autonomous truck tech firm’s board of directors. Starting in the job with Walmart early this month, he also plans to launch and chair a “Kodiak Industry Advisory Council.”
“The council will bring trucking leaders together to ensure Kodiak’s solution solves its customers’ biggest pain points,” Reed wrote in his post.
“I will continue to provide strategic and operational guidance derived from my experience in the trucking industry, and evangelize Kodiak’s transformational and life-saving technology to the broader transportation and logistics industry,” he added. “I am excited to remain closely involved in Kodiak’s growth.”
During Reed’s tenure as COO, Kodiak has touted progress toward its goals of reaching profitability before its competitors and debuting driverless truck runs in Texas in the second half of the year.
When Reed joined Kodiak nearly a year ago, Founder and CEO Don Burnette described him as “a unicorn and a perfect fit,” noting his previous financial and executive leadership jobs at Intel, T-Mobile and JPMorgan Chase.
Walmart leaders hold Reed in similarly high regard, if SVP of Transportation Fernando Cortes’ LinkedIn post is any indication.
“A proven leader in the transportation industry, James brings with him a wealth of expertise, innovative ideas and a passion for excellence,” Cortes wrote.
