Transportation Equipment Network (TEN), an end-to-end leasing, financing, fleet solutions and maintenance company, appointed Ari Silkey as chief operating officer. Silkey joins from Amazon, where he was the general manager of Amazon Freight and spent a decade building and leading the company’s North American surface transportation network.
In his new role, Silkey will focus on strengthening TEN’s operations, modernizing how the company manages its fleet of 80,000+ trailers through technology and AI, and raising the bar on service delivery. He brings a rare perspective to the role, having spent a decade on the shipper side as one of the industry’s largest customers.
“Ari has built and scaled transportation operations at a level that very few people in this industry have, yet every conversation with him comes back to the customer,” Hooman Yazhari, CEO of TEN, said. “His mindset combines innovation and drive with a genuine empathy that makes people want to build alongside him. Ari is a strong addition to the leadership team we’ve been building, and will help us accelerate the operational and technology investments for our customers.”
Silkey said, “What drew me to TEN is the rare chance to build at a company that already has such a large scale but is still in the early stages of what it can become. TEN has all of the pieces to have a massive impact for customers in this industry, and I’m ready to move us to that next stage and make sure customers feel the full weight of what this company can offer.”
In his previous role, Silkey built the technology behind Amazon’s network, including the Amazon Relay application and carrier management systems that power one of the largest surface operations in North America.
Prior to Amazon, Silkey held senior leadership positions at Fortune 100 companies and co-founded several startups, contributing to the launch of more than 100 products. He is a Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient and has served on the Minnesota Governor’s advisory council on connected and automated vehicles.
