Robert E. Sanchez planned for his University of Miami engineering degree to help him take the business world by storm. A Miami-Dade native who’s the son of Cuban immigrants, Sanchez dreamed of creating a personal computer juggernaut akin to Michael Dell’s success with Dell Technologies.
Today, however, Sanchez, a 1987 graduate, is the Chairman and CEO of Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R), a Miami-based Fortune 500 company. Ryder operates a fleet of 250,000 commercial trucks and generates $13 billion in annual revenue by managing fleet and supply chain operations for over 50,000 business customers.
Sanchez recently visited the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School to dispense career tips, and discuss how circumstances and fate can thoroughly discombobulate the best-laid plans, often for the better.
Along with his University of Miami engineering degree, Sanchez, 54, holds an MBA from The Wharton School—an alma mater that sparked some light-hearted remarks during his introduction by Miami Herbert Dean Paul A. Pavlou.
“He didn’t go to Miami Herbert,” Pavlou quipped with a smile, “he went to another school—the Wharton School in Philadelphia!” The comment drew laughter from the students attending Sanchez’s talk, part of Miami Herbert’s Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series.
“We all make mistakes in life,” Pavlou joked, “but thanks to Robert’s engineering degree from the University of Miami, he rose to the top of Ryder.”
Sanchez, at the helm of a $7-billion corporation with 53,000 employees, stood before the audience of eager students, his expression a mix of pride and nostalgia.
“Yesterday our stock hit an all-time high which, as a publicly traded company, is a big deal,” said Ryder’s top executive. “But (’Canes quarterback) Cam Ward makes me even happier. It’s a great time to be a Hurricane!”
A pep rally vibe briefly erupted as students vigorously applauded a captain of industry who claims to have watched every ’Canes football game for the last 41 years. Beyond his pigskin fixation, Sanchez confided that his other passion while a UM student was computers.
“I had started a company (that was) building computers with some fellow UM engineers,” Sanchez recalled. “We’re doing that on the side and I realized that I didn’t know anything about business.”
The epiphany drove Sanchez to seek an MBA. While in business school, Sanchez married his wife, Melly, who’s also from South Florida and who moved to Philadelphia to be with Sanchez while he studied at Wharton.
After considering the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship and fatherhood, Sanchez decided to pursue a more stable career path and accepted a job offer from a Chicago consulting firm.
However, his wife preferred to return to South Florida to be closer to family and escape the cold, harsh weather.
In response, Sanchez explored opportunities in Miami and discovered an opening in Ryder’s IT department. Despite initial reservations, he applied for the position and was hired, marking the start of his journey with the company.
“When I came to Ryder, I was kind of an accidental hire,” Sanchez said of joining the company in 1993. “One of the things that got me really hooked at Ryder was that I was given responsibility really early in my career. I got sucked into this project where we were trying to figure out how to optimize all these rental trucks that we had.
“How many trucks do I need? Where should we be?”
Sanchez came up with a host of viable solutions and quickly developed a reputation as someone able to consistently wrap his brain around Ryder’s most pressing business conundrums.
Some “good advice is to become a problem solver,” Sanchez told the Miami Herbert audience. “Because there’s a lot of problem identifiers, but there’s not a lot of problem solvers. You will have plenty of work with any company you go to work for. I got moved around—I had 17 jobs in 20 years.”
An executive who’s held just about every high-powered post at Ryder, including COO, CFO, CIO, and president, Sanchez was made CEO in January 2013, and was given the chairman title a few months later.
“I never had a plan to be the CEO,” said Sanchez, who’s on the University of Miami’s Board of Trustees. “I’ve been able to live in the community I grew up in, with my friends and my family. My kids have grown up with their grandparents nearby, so it’s been a real blessing.
“So now,” Sanchez laughed, “I listen to everything my wife says!”
