Less-than-truckload carrier Saia announced its new chief financial officer Tuesday. Internal hire Matthew Batteh has assumed the role effective immediately.
Batteh succeeds Doug Col, who announced his retirement last month in conjunction with the company’s first-quarter results. Col has served as CFO since the beginning of 2020. He will remain with the company through the transition.
Batteh joined Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA) in 2015, most recently serving as the company’s vice president of finance. He was vice president of pricing and analytics prior to that. He began his career at UPS (NYSE: UPS).
“Matt brings significant knowledge of Saia and the LTL industry to his new position,” said President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe. “He has a command of the complexities of our business and has been instrumental in the development of the core financial analysis processes that we use at Saia.”
In addition to his finance, pricing, accounting and treasury duties, Batteh will serve as the company’s secretary.
He is assuming the carrier’s top financial position at an important time.
Saia recently acquired 28 terminals from defunct Yellow Corp.’s (OTC: YELLQ) estate. It will open 15 to 20 new terminals and relocate other sites this year, spending a total of $1 billion on real estate and equipment upgrades. It has already started to open some of the new locations, which are expected to increase network door capacity by approximately 12% to 14%.