Horizon skipper is a big fan of boxing.

• Author: Richter, Chris
• Position: PEOPLE

The business Chuck Raymond is in is on the sea. But the president and chief executive of Horizon Lines Inc. has spent much of the last three years on the road and in meetings. Since 2003, the Charlotte-based container-shipping and logistics company has been through two leveraged buyouts and an initial public offering. "It's been a pretty exciting 31 months."

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The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private-equity company, bought Horizon from Jacksonville, Fla.-based transportation giant CSX for $300 million. A year later, New York-based Castle Harlan, another private-equity financier, bought it for $650 million. Horizon went public last September. Castle Harlan, its largest shareholder, owns about 37%.

Founded in 1956 by Tar Heel trucking executive Malcolm McLean, Horizon is a remnant of Sea-Land Service, the company that pioneered container shipping. Horizon carries more than a third of the container cargo shipped between ports in the lower 48 states and Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Guam. It has 16 ships, owns or leases nearly 23,000 containers, employs about 1,800 and reported about $1.1 billion revenue last year. Customers include Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Toyota, U.S. Postal Service and Procter & Gamble.

Raymond, 62, earned a bachelor's in marine transportation from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1965. The...