Amerijet CEO Strauss calls it quits after rocky 3 years

Tim Strauss’ stormy tenure as CEO of Amerijet International is over after three years. The Miami-based cargo airline on Tuesday said Chief Financial Officer Joe Mozzali will replace Strauss as the company’s top executive, effective Saturday.

Mozzali has only been Amerijet’s CFO for seven months, having arrived from UPS Airlines where he held the same position. Before that, he was at UPS International for nearly three years. During his career at UPS he was also vice president of strategy for UPS Europe, Middle East and Africa, and CEO of Kiala, a European e-commerce logistics company acquired by UPS.

Amerijet said Strauss, 68, was retiring. The first mention of the current CEO came at the bottom of a press release.

In an internal message to Amerijet employees obtained by FreightWaves, Strauss indicated the decision to depart was his.

“One of the most difficult things to know is when you have run your race and when it is time to pass the baton to the next leader. After much thought, I have decided to retire as Chief Executive Officer of Amerijet International … . Joe was brought into the organization with the eventual potential of this day in mind,” he wrote.

Strauss resigned in September 2021, after one year on the job, because of interference from former CEO and Executive Chairman Vic Karjian, only to patch things up 10 days later with his predecessor and ZS Fund, the New York-based private equity firm that owns Amerijet.

The former head of cargo at Air Canada quickly moved to grow Amerijet from a modest, regional cargo operator to a mid-tier global carrier and implement more professional business practices that could improve efficiency, compliance and customer service. He more than doubled the freighter fleet to 25 aircraft, up from eight Boeing 767s when he arrived, expanded the airline’s reach to China and South Korea by flying three 767-300s for Maersk Air Cargo to the U.S. market, picked up DHL Express and the U.S. Postal Service as customers, and increased flying between Miami and Brussels.

The makeover included leasing the first 757 converted freighters and adding new digital capabilities, including a cloud-based cargo management and reservation system and crew scheduling software. He also hired many managers to implement the changes, ruffling feathers with the company’s old guard, according to sources close to the company.

Amerijet finalized a new three-year labor deal with its pilots during the summer.

“We are very excited about Joe becoming Amerijet’s next CEO. His leadership skills, strategic insights, deep industry knowledge, and disciplined management style make him the perfect choice to lead our company. We have great confidence in Joe’s ability to lead us to new heights as the air cargo carrier of choice,” said Bob Horne, a partner at ZS Fund and a board member. “We thank Tim for his excellent leadership during a period of tremendous growth for Amerijet over the past three years and wish him well in his retirement.”

The sharp downturn in the air cargo market since last year has hit Amerijet hard, forcing the company to lay off a handful of workers, outsource some jobs to Trinidad and Tobago, and close a small freight forwarding unit. 

“Over the past several years, Amerijet has significantly expanded its fleet and entered into new markets while diversifying its service offerings. With much of the industry facing cost and demand headwinds, success demands agility, innovation, and disciplined operational excellence with a surgical focus on enhancing the customer experience. We will leverage our current strengths while continuing to build foundations for future growth,” Mozzali said in the announcement.

At a freighter investment conference in Seattle on Sept. 21, Mozzali commented that the difficult market requires cargo airlines to demonstrate adaptability.

“It’s flexing up and down when needed and having the flexibility and agility to do that. Even in a downturn market, you still have to remain very agile. We have the benefit of having both a narrowbody and widebody fleet. So we’re able to flex up where demand is high and flex down in certain markets, as well,” he said during a panel discussion organized by the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading.

Strauss is scheduled to speak at the Air Cargo Americas expo and conference in Miami in early November but is not expected to participate now. 

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Twitter: @ericreports / LinkedIn: Eric Kulisch / ekulisch@freightwaves.com

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