ADDISON, Texas, May 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Daseke, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSKE), the largest flatbed and specialized transportation and logistics solutions company in North America, announced today that it has named Rick Williams as the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this new executive role, Mr. Williams will be responsible for managing Daseke’s industry-leading scale in the flatbed and specialized trucking market, and further leveraging the Company’s scale into profitable earnings growth. Additionally, Mr. Williams will be responsible for overseeing ongoing business integrations and further business optimization efforts across the portfolio.
Chris Easter, Chief Executive Officer of Daseke, said, “We are excited to announce Rick Williams’ appointment to the COO role, which effectively completes Daseke’s operational and financial leadership transition that started last August. Rick has served as a diligent leader at Daseke for many years, not only as the head of Central Oregon Trucking, but also more recently as the head of our Flatbed segment. Rick’s contributions have been instrumental in helping deliver organizational change across our business over the last few quarters. We will look to leverage Rick’s expanded role as COO as we continue our operational transformation and reposition the business for long-term growth and success.”
Mr. Williams added, “I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my leadership role at Daseke as the company’s COO. The team has made significant strides to reshape our business based on operational excellence over the last three quarters. Our financial results are showing the impact of the actions we have collectively taken to improve our operations and further strengthen our leadership position in the specialized and flatbed transportation market. Having been with the organization since its early days, I firmly believe that we have the right collection of new leaders, the vision and the toolkit to become a best-in-class operating platform. We will remain agile in our response to industry change brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resilience of our business model will allow us to leverage our competitive position both today and when the pandemic is behind us.”
Mr. Williams brings over 34 years of direct trucking industry experience, serving as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Central Oregon Truck Company, Inc., (“COTC”), a flatbed transportation company based in Redmond, Oregon. In September 2019, Mr. Williams was named Flatbed Segment Division Head, where he was primarily responsible for overseeing and implementing best practices across the Daseke Flatbed Segment. He has over 34 years of experience in the flatbed trucking industry, starting out as a driver at the age of 20. His management expertise and focus on operational process and efficiency propelled COTC from its inception as a small freight brokerage to its current fleet of over 300 power units. COTC is recognized as one of the Top 20 “Best Fleets to Drive For®” in the U.S. for seven straight years by the Truckload Carrier’s Association (TCA®) and winning the overall award of Best Fleet to Drive For in 2018.
About Daseke, Inc.
Daseke, Inc. is the largest flatbed and specialized transportation and logistics company in North America. Daseke offers comprehensive, best-in-class services to many of the world’s most respected industrial shippers through experienced people, a fleet of more than 5,500 tractors and 12,000 flatbed and specialized trailers. For more information, please visit www.daseke.com.
