Courier company UPS has selected Ernie Caballero, the CFO for Europe, as its new chief investment officer, a UPS spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
Caballero is the second person appointed to the role since UPS’s longtime CIO Brian Pellegrino retired in late 2017 to become head of the Georgia Tech Foundation.
[II Deep Dive: UPS CIO to Exit for Georgia Tech]
Pellegrino’s original successor, Geoff Kelley, had been picked in advance and had begun transitioning into the role. A regulatory filing dated January 18 lists Kelley as the pension fund’s CIO. He was well-liked by the investment team, three sources said. “Geoff is a tremendous man. He has always been seen as a leader in the company,” according to one.
Within months of appointing Kelley as CIO, UPS promoted him to senior role at Coyote Logistics — a firm UPS acquired in 2015. Kelley had managed Coyote’s integration into the larger corporation, according to his LinkedIn profile.
That move left open the leadership of UPS’s $40 billion defined benefit pension fund. There was little to no speculation that the company would launch an external search.
Instead, UPS selected Caballero, a lifelong company man with decades of finance experience, but relatively little in investing.
“Ernie is a 29-year veteran of UPS, and has held numerous financial leadership roles including vice president EurAsia treasury and mergers and acquisitions, as well as CFO of the company’s Europe region, among others. He is well suited for his new role as CIO,” the UPS spokesperson said in a statement to Institutional Investor.
UPS’s powerful investment team is based in Atlanta, and American-educated Caballero is expected to relocate from Europe.
This article has been updated with a statement from UPS and further details on Geoff Kelley’s transition.
