UPS names Barber COO, first to hold the post since June 2014

UPS Inc. said today it has named Jim Barber, the company's head of international, as its chief operating officer, the first time since June 2014 that UPS has employed a COO.

Barber will head Atlanta-based UPS' global small package, freight, supply chain and freight forwarding, and engineering units. UPS has been without a COO since David P. Abney, its current chairman and CEO, relinquished the role when he became CEO in 2014. Since then, responsibilities that might have been tasked to the company's chief operating executive have been spread around to other personnel.

Barber, a 35-year UPS veteran who had headed the company's international division since 2013, will be replaced by Nando Cesarone, who had run the company's European operations since 2015. Barber headed UPS' European business a number of years before.

Prior to running Europe, Cesarone headed up UPS' Asia-Pacific business. He joined UPS in 1991.