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In the trucking business, an idle trailer is a money loser. Perpetual motion is the only way a trucking company can come out on top.
Stephen Russell, chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based trucking firm Celadon Group Inc., subscribes to the same philosophy.
"I never hang out in the sense of killing time," Russell says. "I can't read novels. I frankly don't feel I can get anything out of them. One must live every moment in your life."
But the 58-year-old isn't talking about living it up. Instead, he's referencing a hard-driving career that started at a young age and shows no signs of slowing.
Russell has had successful careers with companies such as Ford and RCA. He founded Celadon in 1985 and has turned it into one of the top 10 trucking firms in the country.
The company's niche is hauling freight from the U.S. and Canada into Mexico. Since taking the company public only four years ago, Russell has come full circle. He and a New York fund, Odyssey Investment Partners LLC, are in the process of buying the company back for $259 million.
"Being a private company eliminates some of the constraints that affect public companies, like reporting requirements," says Paul Will, Celadon's controller. "In addition, this gives us more resources and allows us to grow the business."
The seeds for starting Celadon were planted in Russell's mind by chance at a busy toll booth on the West Side highway in New York City in 1985. Leonard Bennett, a former employee of Russell's at Seatrain Lines, a New York-based sea freight and tanker company, noticed Russell driving by and motioned him to pull over.
Bennett, who was working for Bekins, a residential moving company, quickly described his idea to start a...