David E. Brenner is honored as IHFRA's 2000 Pillar of the Industry.

Furniture World Magazine

Born in East Patterson, N J David is the oldest of three children. His parents gave him a suitcase as a graduation present and with that, David decided to move out and move on. He joined the Merchant Marines out of high school, just before the Vietnam War, and visited Far East countries such as Japan, Okinawa, South Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea. He attended Gettysburg College and graduated with a degree in economics from Upsala College in East Orange, NJ. David worked in the trucking industry during college as a dock worker. He worked his way up as a local driver in the New York metropolitan area, and then became an "over the road" driver. He moved into management as a terminal manager at the age of 25. He reopened a terminal that had been shut down due to labor problems. David moved through the ranks as a district manager and regional manager. At 32 years old, he became an eastern field vice president for Pacific International Express (PIE), a subsidiary of IU International. At age 35, he was named president of PIE International, which was an international freight forwarder involving air, ocean, and road transportation services based in London, England. He was responsible for operations in Canada, Europe, Scandinavia and the MidEast. He and his family returned from Europe in 1979 and he was hired by Sun Oil to run St. Johnsbury Trucking, which was the largest general commodities carrier in the northeast United States at that time. Then, TNT Nationwide, an Australian conglomerate, offered him the opportunity to move south to be involved in not only running companies, but also in choosing and executing acquisitions. In 1986, he bought Caldwell Freight Lines, which specializes in new furniture shipping. Today, David serves as president/ owner. The company's revenues have grown from just over $9 million to more than $30 million under David's leadership.