Third-party logistics firm STG Logistics has tapped Paul Svindland, former chief executive of bankrupt Celadon Group Inc., to lead its company.
STG is owned by private-equity firm Wind Point Partners, headquartered in Chicago.
Svindland said he will assume his new position on March 2, just months after Celadon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“I am concluding my role as CEO of Celadon at the end of this month [January], but the plan is to continue to serve on the board,” Svindland told FreightWaves.
Prior to his role at Celadon, Svindland, who has spent 25 years in the transportation and logistics industry, served as chairman and chief executive of Farren International and EZE Trucking and was the chief operating officer of Pacer International.
He also co-founded and co-led the transportation and logistics consulting practice at AlixPartners, which is known for its turnaround efforts in the industry, according to the STG news release.
“Paul has a strong track record of building vibrant corporate cultures, positioning companies for growth and driving continued performance improvement,” Konrad Salaber, managing director of Wind Point, said in a statement. “These experiences will prove invaluable as he leads STG into its next phase of organic and inorganic expansion.”
STG, an asset-light provider, specializes in “complex and highly customized logistics and transportation services focused on the global supply chain,” the company said in a statement.
Geoff Anderman, chief financial officer of STG, did not respond to FreightWaves’ request for comment regarding the appointment of Svindland.
“I believe a combination of my multimodal experience, performance improvement background and my accountability-based leadership style will serve me well at STG,” Svindland told FreightWaves.
Cash-strapped Celadon filed for bankruptcy protection under Svindland’s watch
Celadon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 8, just days after truck drivers were stranded with deactivated fuel cards thousands of miles from home.
Truck drivers told FreightWaves recently that they are still finding abandoned Celadon equipment scattered across the U.S.
In a recently unsealed court filing, Celadon allegedly depleted $21.5 million in cash reserves and was unable to meet debt obligations months prior to filing for bankruptcy protection.
Svindland took the helm at Celadon at a critical time in July 2017, just two months after an alleged accounting and securities fraud scheme rocked the Indianapolis-based company.
Since then, Celadon and its subsidiaries had been trying to dig out from the financial scandal and had to restate financial results going back to 2014. Celadon’s stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in April 2018.
However, Celadon was never able to financially recover despite selling some of its assets and receiving an injection of $165 million to help the struggling company refinance its debt as part of a restructuring plan just four months before it filed for bankruptcy.
So far, two former Celadon executives have been indicted in an alleged scam that cost the truckload and logistics company’s shareholders more than $60 million.
A third executive, Danny Williams, former president of Quality Companies, a subsidiary of Celadon, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, make false statements to a public company’s accountants and falsify books, records and accounts of a public company in April.
Mary Doyle
I’m a former Celadon driver. The way this shut down was handled by the execs is a disgrace…professionally and ethically. When I arrived at our Indy headquarters…there weren’t even shuttles available to take drivers to the Greyhound Station downtown. All tgise drivers had been let go that day. The execs could have hired a private shuttle company for that. I personally put 4 drivers into taxis to help them get home. And then in a ill thought letter, we the drivers were lumped in with our outside vendors for a weak thank you. The legacy that Steve Russell built and the drivers who WERE the company meant nothing to these suits. And I used to be a suit but never would have treated people this badly. Men with soft hands shoukd not run truck companies. Hope your family had a wonderful Christmas, Paul…because THOUSANDS did not because of your actions.
Joseph Howard
Paul Svindland should be on his way to prison, with his executive crooked buddies. They never mentioned how their lying and cheating impacted all those Trucker’s families especially the kids during the holidays. STG Management should be chastised for this idiotic decision. This is reminiscent of the Paul James situation in the 90s. All you old head drivers remember. Mark my word ,he will bankrupt STG, like Paul James bankrupted BURLINGTON MOTOR CARRIERS. A leopard never changes it’s spots. ( There’s something about the name PAUL,…..I guess.)
alex
LOL This is joke right? If I were driving for this company I would look for another job ASAP. He’s been in this business for long time and knows how to screw the driver 10 times over. RUN
Ken
Looks like a bum,needs to shave
Craig Draper
Wow now here comes another co.pany going bankrupt
daniela
He did a great job at Celadon. Its a no brainer move bty STG. They can look at long and prosperous future.
Giovanni Socci
“I believe a combination of my multi modal experience,performance improvement background and my accountability based leadership style will serve me well at STG”… Sure,Paul,sure.
2 years later STG loses the tires off off their mobile offices…🤣🤣🤣 They could ve hired a monkey for less,I mean run it into the ground for free,a monkey can do that,”Performance improvement”… yeah, good luck with that.
Giovanni Socci
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Hey Paul,we love what you did over at Celadon,come on over and stick it to our drivers too,won t you?.
Talk about stupidity.
When a driver has an accident or incident,he is lucky if he keeps his job,some times no one will hire him to do any legal driving,but an incompetent C.E.O.? No problem,you ran that company into the ground,left thousands of people jobless,stranded on the road,BUT don t you worry none,we ve got a job for you.
P.O.S. C.E.O.
Ken
He is also screwed us at hyndman transport in Canada Hyndman was makeing money and we had other companies that wanted to buy us out and they said no. They were also takeing money out of the accounts of hyndman. He did not even have the decency to tell the drivers that they were closing. There was never any word from higher management about this bankrupt. So I would say watch this guy.