Sylvester Black was named Vice President, Area Operations, for the Western Area in July 2002. Based in Denver, Black is responsible for all postal operations, including mail processing and distribution, customer service and administrative operations, for the Western Area. In this role, Black is responsible for managing an annual operation budget of $9 billion and a workforce of 104,000, serving 49 million customers and 24 million addresses.

The Western Area is the largest geographical postal area in the country. Covering two million square miles, it encompasses 56 percent of the total land mass of the United States. It includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the western and southern portions of Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, western Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Previously, Black served as capital metro operations manager, responsible for all postal operations in the Baltimore, Capital, Richmond and Northern Virginia districts.

Black also served as vice president, Networks Operations Management, where he was responsible for logistics, aviation mail security, international operations and Priority Mail functions. Earlier, Black served as manager and postmaster of the New York district where he was responsible for managing a workforce of 18,000 and an annual operation budget of nearly $1 billion, while serving approximately 3 million customers and 1.3 million addresses in the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx.

Black began his postal career in 1974 as an accounting assistant at the Bulk Mail Center in Des Moines, Iowa. He held several other positions in the Midwest and in 1986, was named controller of the St. Paul, Minnesota, division. He was appointed controller of the New York division in 1989 and was subsequently promoted to New York senior director of operations prior to becoming district manager/postmaster.

Black holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa. He also has studied at Columbia University, Duke University and the University of Virginia.

March 2008