Pilot’s new CEO is determined to carry on the company’s tradition of community leadership. Adam Wright will host a kickoff event for United Way team leaders at Pilot headquarters on Friday, September 6, 2024.
Panel members will include:
- Matt Ryerson, president and CEO, United Way of Greater Knoxville
- Adam Wright, CEO, Pilot
- John Tolsma, United Way of Greater Knoxville 2024 campaign chair
- Tony Vitello, University of Tennessee head baseball coach
The campaign kickoff is a continuation of Pilot’s longstanding partnership with United Way and demonstrates Pilot’s continued commitment to support the greater Knoxville community.
Also, Pilot stores are collecting money for United Way. From Sept. 1-11, customers at three locations can choose to round up to the nearest whole dollar at checkout:
- Pilot #270 – 314 Lovell Road
- Flying J #722 – 800 Watt Road
- Pilot #219 – 7210 Strawberry Plains Pike
Adam Wright
Adam L. Wright has served as chief executive officer for Pilot since May 2023, but has maintained a low profile until recently. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and employs 30,000 team members.
Founded in 1958 by Jim Haslam, Pilot has nearly 900 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces, serving an average of 1.2 million customers per day. The company operates the third largest fuel tanker fleet in North America and supplies approximately 12 billion gallons of fuel per year.
Haslam surely appreciates Wright’s support of the United Way, but Big Jim would like even more the intensity of Wright’s football career – especially quotes written by author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga on July 6, 2010, for the Omaha Weekly.
After losing his father at age 8, Adam watched his two older siblings make some bad life choices and set about being a model child for the sake of his mother, Liz, who had gone back to school to become an R.N. to support her family. Wright had to be coached to be tough, Biga writes.
“He has taken many hard knocks, but delivered some too, usually leaving a litter of bodies in his wake. ‘I take pride in knowing I’m not going to be stopped by any one guy, no matter who he is, no matter how big he is,’ Wright said.”
He set rushing records for the Division II Nebraska Omaha Mavericks.
“By mid-season, he was a bruised but unbowed target for opposing defenses, absorbing hit upon hit but always picking himself up off the turf to get back into the fray. More often than not, tacklers were worn down by game’s end, not him.
“Late, when defenses are tiring, he said, ‘you go for the kill. You put your head down a little lower, squeeze the ball tighter, fire out and go stronger.’”
Biga quotes Wright: “I saw how hard our mom was working just so we could have a chance for a better life and I didn’t want to disappoint her and make all the things she was doing be in vain. I tried not to disappoint anybody.”
Before joining Pilot, Wright most recently served as chief operating officer of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, one of the nation’s largest combined natural gas and electric providers.
Prior to that, he worked for the Berkshire Hathaway Energy family of businesses, beginning as an intern in 1996. He earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2002.
Wright was an all-American running back for University of Nebraska at Omaha from 1997-2000 and was a fullback on the New York Giants roster for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. He and his wife, Sabrina, have two children: Kenedy, a recent graduate of Iowa State University, and Adam, a junior at the University of Michigan.
Welcome to Knoxville, Adam Wright. You’ll fit right in.
Sandra Clark is founder of KnoxTNToday.com