At the heart of every corporation beats the energy of opening day; the often humble beginning when the dream is still taking shape. Of course, part of what drives the dream is a determination to be successful, but every now and again, an entrepreneur comes along gifted with a greater perspective. What if he or she can marry financial success with a spirit of community? What if the company’s success reflected the employees’ success? What then?

";We have a legacy that is nearly a century old,” says Evern Cooper Epps, President of the UPS Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Relations. ";The success has been the teamwork and support of our people; more importantly, understanding the importance of giving back and modeling that good corporate citizenship.” Epps understands, ";We are the communities that we live and work in. We look for any opportunity we can, not only to improve the health and vitality of those communities, but also to give back.” That kind of mindfulness has helped the philanthropic arm of the corporation grow to be the 14th largest foundation in the U.S.

In 1907, an enterprising 19-year old, James (Jim) E. Casey had a dream. He borrowed $100 from a friend and started the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington. Sharing the vision was Casey’s business partner, Claude Ryan. The company thrived despite stiff competition largely because of Casey’s policies of reliability, customer courtesy, low rates, and 24-hour service. Nearly 100 years later, Casey’s messenger service has grown into a $30 billion global corporation known as United Parcel Service (UPS). Yet, despite its size and recognition around the world, UPS continues to be guided by the legacy of Casey’s sound principals and humble leadership.

UPS is more than a messenger service. The company literally enables commerce around the globe. It is the world’s largest package delivery company and a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services. Each day, UPS manages the flow of information, funds and goods in more than 200 territories worldwide. UPS is also the 3rd largest employer of people in the U.S. and 7th in the world.

A company that can endure social and political changes for nearly 100 years has obviously found a formula for success. They are doing something right. Surely, they are well-managed. Part of the formula is in how the company is managed. “UPS really holds itself to very high standards,” Epps says, ";quality, integrity and doing right by its people is stressed every single day.”

For 30 years, Epps has found the leadership at UPS to be inspired. She finds the combination of ";legacy leadership” – as she calls it – and high standards to be the very source of the company’s success. “I’ve been blessed to not only work for a company that ‘gets it’ but also to be around leaders who ‘get it’, like Mike Eskew and our senior leadership.”

";I like to call them ‘legacy leaders’”, explains Epps, ";because they understand that it’s not about the leader, it’s not about who he or she leads; it’s about what he or she leaves.” Epps says that this attitude is stressed every single day.

Looking again to Casey’s leadership, Epps describes him as a quiet leader who didn’t believe in fanfare. “We’re still a grassroots company that hasn’t forgotten where it’s come from.”

These core values mirror Epps’ own. Fate and circumstances may have been what brought her to UPS but it is what the company stands for that has kept her there for 3 decades. More importantly, she has remained as a way to create a path for others to follow.

As a young, African American woman with a college degree in Journalism, Epps was teaching when she decided to go back to school for her Masters. Seeking a part-time job to help her through school, Epps applied at UPS. “I had no clue what UPS even was! It was basically a truck-driving company back then.” she declares. What was waiting for her was more than she ever imagined. “I do believe in Divine Order, I really do,” says Epps, ";and that part-time job turned into a gratifying career.”

One of the things Epps found appealing from the start was the attitude at UPS. She began her career as a clerical worker and steadily moved on up the ladder. “One of the prerequisites for going into management was that you had to learn the business from the bottom up,” she explains, ";It didn’t matter how much education you had.”

Today, in order for the company to be competitive, a college degree is close to being mandatory but even then, there are occasions for exceptions.

Just as Epps experienced in the 70s, the policy at UPS is to encourage its employees to learn different aspects of the company; to move about within the different departments so as to get a feel of the bigger picture from that perspective. One of her moves was a stint as an account executive. ";It’s important that you understand that our success was built on our ground business and our ability to pick up and deliver packages with not only speed and quality, but at the lowest cost possible. You can only do that and be efficient if you understand the reasons why,” says Epps.

From her perspective, neither her gender nor her ethnicity was a hindrance. The biggest challenge was acceptance. They weren’t used to seeing a woman at the management level,” she recalls, ";That’s the importance of learning the job from the bottom up – once you got accepted and could demonstrate that you had the ability to do the job, you were absolutely welcomed.”

";It gets to a point where some things you just rise above and don’t take personally,” Epps continues. “You stay focused on keeping the main thing the main thing and while there may have been people who had some issues, what the company stood for made an overarching difference in the treatment of its people.”

What the company stood for then and now is not compromising. One example of this came the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Epps explains, ";During the unrest of the 60s, UPS was definitely cutting edge. They’d interview drivers in the back of gas stations, in back rooms and offices, just to be able to get minorities in and on the payroll.” Time and again, says Epps, UPS returns to the age-old maxim of treating people right simply because that is the right thing to do. �pting human beings for human beings,” she adds firmly.

The UPS Foundation came into being in 1951. Epps, a woman of many firsts, is the 4th person ever to head the foundation and the first female and first African American. “Our philanthropy is just that, philanthropy,” explains Epps, ";and it goes back to our humble beginnings.” In the early days, the focus of the foundation was on adult, workplace and family literacy issues. Today, the focus has enlarged to include volunteerism. “We began to expand being mindful of the changing conditions and emerging issues that were facing our society,” explains Epps, ";We were asking, where could we have the most significant impact and what mirrored out core values?”

With Epps leading the way, the focus of the Foundation is set by UPS employees; individuals who are involved in their communities and who see first-hand where the needs are greatest. �ter a couple of decades of doing hunger and literacy,” says Epps, ";our Trustees identified a need for civic engagement.”

At the time of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, UPS had started up its volunteer initiative. ";We had been looking at helping non-profits meet the demands of their services through volunteerism,” Epps explains. The timing turned out to be crucial; never were volunteers more needed in the city of New York. ";We’ve been fortunate in that we’ve been good at ‘just-in-time’ philanthropy, ";says Epps. ";That and having inspired leaders like the Mike Eskews of the world.”

Recently, UPS sent $3 million in emergency aid to those countries affected by the recent quake and resulting tsunami in South Asia. UPS took time to assess the needs, ";Our employees were asking how UPS was going to help and I was trying to be the calm after the storm,” Epps explains. ";We needed to think clearly through the situation. Ultimately, everybody took an active role and made the right decision. It may not seem that it’s always timely, but it’s always right on time.”

Epps recognizes the need for a more global face, ";[Philanthropy] has to be global.” The UPS Global Grants program now addresses areas of global social needs in 22 different countries.” We have a 5-year strategy in terms of increasing our global grant-making. The majority of our philanthropy has been domestic while we’ve become an international company,” Epps explains. As she sees it, the program is an opportunity to help make the world a better place. ";First and foremost, we need to understand and embrace our differences. We’re going to do that through our people, hopefully, leading by example.”

The Foundation awarded $385,000 in grants a couple of years ago and has a target of $2.6 million this year. 𠇋y the centennial in 2007,” says Epps, ";our goal is to be granting closer to $6 million.

Epps has been blessed with great mentors along her journey at UPS. Looking back Epps recalls the guidance and support she’s received: Jack (?), a District Manager she worked with early on, one of the Business Development Managers, former CEO Oz (?) Nelson, and Mike Eskew, current CEO of UPS. “I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the best and, at the same time, impart some of what I’m about to them,” she says. ";I do think that there has to be some type of synergy.”

Epps unselfishly mentors the people around her every day. She describes the value of mentorship succinctly, ";It takes your inexperience and makes you appear experienced until you get it; Epps likes to think of her relationships with those she has mentored as one of mutual respect. One fortunate person to have been mentored by Epps is her assistant, Lisa Hamilton. “Lisa is a very sharp young lady who has an extremely bright future,” says Epps. “She’s genuine and super intelligent; she’s humble and she’s not trying to get everything like, right now. She knows that there is opportunity there and that you don’t have to do everything last night.”

This is the stuff that legacy leadership is all about. Epps feels a huge sense of pride and gratification helping others along. "I've been blessed to be able to mentor a number of Lisas in my career.

It's important to have succession planning," explains Epps. "You have to have that transfer of leadership and knowledge to be able to keep the company profitable but also to create opportunities for others to understand the sense of purpose in creating opportunities for the next leaders.” Epps works closely with the Board of Trustees of the Foundation which is comprised of UPS senior leadership, Mike Eskew and his staff, and many of the Human Resources (HR) professionals.

In addition to her responsibilities at UPS, Epps shares her energy and ideas through affiliations with numerous professional organizations, both locally and nationally. She is an inductee in the YWCA of greater Atlanta's Academy of Women Achievers; Chairman of Women Looking Ahead and member of the ";List of Georgia’s 100 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Corporate America. Business to Business Magazine named her one of their Divas in 2004. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and the past Chairman of the Board of Corporate Advisors of United Way America. She also is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts Council of Northwest Georgia. Epps believes that ";Somewhere along the line, there is a little Girl Scout in every good, successful [female] leader.”

Additionally, Epps is a member of the Board of Close Up Foundation; member of the Board of the Points of Light Foundation; Chair of the Board of Atlanta Partners for Education; member of the Board of Zoo Atlanta; member of the International Advisory Board for the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College; and a member of Links – Dogwood Chapter.

The end of 2004 brought great sorrow as well as tremendous joy to Epps. She lost her father in October and married the love of her life in November. The devastation in South Asia in December touched her to the core. "My mother often says that life is precious and you never know what each day will bring; you have to live each day to its fullest.”

On November 6, 2004, Evern Cooper and Elzie Epps were married at sunset under a dramatic South African sky. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, did the honors. "CIt was truly a blessing to have Ambassador Young preside over our nuptials. I can’t tell you how meaningful it was to both of us,” says Epps. The event was even covered on the television program ";Top Billing”, the South African equivalent to ";Entertainment Tonight”.

Epps and Cooper had met years before. Just like in the storybooks, a chance encounter at a shopping mall 25 years later brought them together again. On South African camera, Elzie explained what he loves about Evern, ";She's a very direct, giving and caring person; she’s very motivated, I love that about her.”

Her long career at UPS is a testament to her motivation. Yet, even a dynamo like Epps needs downtime to relax and recharge. Golf is the perfect match for her and she is a card-carrying member of the ";Divas”, a group of friends with whom she tries to play as often as her busy life allows. Family is also very important to her and she loves to read. Now that husband Elzie has taken up the game, the couple enjoys getting out on the links together.

No one sums up Evern Cooper Epps better than the woman herself. ";I love a challenge. I also like strategy and being visionary.” Epps gives back in both her professional and personal life. She embodies quality and integrity and doing right by people and she lives the example of inspired leadership every single day. Epps is paving the way for all of us. It’s up to us to follow her lead.