By Esther Fung
President Trump's new pick for postmaster general is a FedEx director who led a turnaround of a waste-and-recycling firm after an insider trading scandal. Here's what to know about David Steiner:
1. He spearheaded a comeback for Waste Management. Some of the company's top executives in the 1990s falsified financial results. Steiner joined the company as deputy general counsel in 2000 and in less than four years climbed the ranks to become CEO. He streamlined operations, improved the company's financial performance and safety record, and worked to improve employee morale.
2. Steiner calls himself "the walking embodiment of better-lucky-than-good." That is because in 2000, when he went to work for Waste Management, he turned down a job offer from Enron.
3. He is a director at FedEx, a competitor to the U.S. Postal Service. That could pose a conflict of interest, union leaders say. It is akin to hiring a "fox to guard the hen house," said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 200,000 postal workers.
4. Steiner has a big job ahead of him. The Postal Service has been hemorrhaging money for years because of declining mail volumes, limits on what it can charge customers and a costly mandate to deliver to around 168 million addresses six days a week. Steiner must also address persistent delays of mail and package deliveries in some parts of the country.
5. He was hand-selected by Trump. Technically, the postal board of governors appointed Steiner to the job, but Trump had a big hand in his selection. Trump interviewed Steiner at the White House earlier this month.
6. Steiner says he wants the Postal Service to remain an independent agency. The direction of the Postal Service has been in question since Trump in February raised the idea of folding it into the Commerce Department. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in March signed an agreement to work with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on improving efficiency at the Postal Service, but resisted some of the task force's efforts. DeJoy stepped down later that month, as Trump was preparing to fire him.
Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 09, 2025 11:15 ET (15:15 GMT)
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