It gives us a great pleasure, in UPS, to support this special edition of the "Stories of Business Success" and hope you will find it as a source of inspiration.

The stories unfolded in this book are mainly stories of life achievement rather of business success. They talk about vision, passion, hard work, risks, tough decisions, but most importantly each and every story of the individuals presented is about strong leadership that inspired followers.

The timing of this publication coincides with an important milestone in UPS's history, the celebration of our 100th anniversary. It is an opportunity to reflect and think about the driving force that helped UPS to evolve from a small messenger and delivery service in Seattle-US into the world's largest package delivery company and global leader in supply chain services.

This force is a strong and distinct culture marked by the personal beliefs and thoughts of Jim Casey, the founder of UPS. Jim was not a high profile hero who takes the credit for all important decisions and is always in the limelight. He was rather humble and self-effacing and plain spoken, but he was a great leader. He always asked his managers to be modest, lead without fanfare and build the future leaders of the company.

His was a quite leadership that nonetheless inspired followers. Today, in an environment of many "heroes" and high profile champions of right over wrong, we need more quiet leaders. Not the kind that make headlines but the kind that directly impacts customers and the community, the kind of leaders presented in this book.

(Michael Mavropoulos, Managing Director UPS Greece, Cyprus & Balkans)