When Lloyd Knight retired after 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, where he rose to First Sergeant, he didn’t hang up his sense of mission. Instead, he has carried it forward, determined to open doors for thousands of other veterans transitioning into civilian life.
“The model of the Air Force first sergeant is that people are our business, so whether it’s at UPS or running my business Knightwork or VETLANTA … I use that experience more than all my college degrees and all my logistics and aviation experience on a day-to-day basis,” Knight told We Are The Mighty.
Today, as the Veteran Talent Acquisition Strategy Manager at UPS’s global headquarters, Knight leads the hiring and retention of more than 19,000 veterans across the company but his impact doesn’t end there. Through initiatives he founded, including UPS’s first Veterans Business Resource Group and the Veterans Management Training Program, as well as serving as chairman of the UPS Veterans Council, Knight is rewriting what corporate veteran support looks like.
Beyond UPS, he co-founded and serves as president of VETLANTA, a 14,000-member networking group in Atlanta that connects veterans to employers, government agencies, nonprofits, and mentors. For Knight, success is measured by lives transformed. He can still recall a moment early on in VETLANTA that drives him today.
“I was leading a panel discussion at an event, and a guy in the back of the room raised his hand, and he asked a great question,” Knight recalled. “And it turns out he was living in his car, and he had a job, but he was only making about $30,000 a year. One of the panelists on that panel said, ‘Hey, let me get your contact information.’ He hired that guy three days later to be a nighttime auditor at a hotel chain, making four times what he was making. So, you know, those kinds of testimonials I think are more powerful than any number on a spreadsheet.”
His mission is fueled by empathy for the invisible hurdles veterans face. One challenge he sees more often now is that many veterans pass their GI Bill benefits to their spouses or children, leaving themselves without resources for trade school or college. “If I could change one thing,” Knight said, “I’d encourage veterans to keep their GI Bill and invest in themselves.”
Knight is also driven to counter a common stereotype about veterans: that they’re rigid or unadaptable. “It’s the opposite,” he insists. “Veterans bring diverse perspectives and learn quickly because of their experiences.”
When asked what being mighty means to him, Knight doesn’t hesitate: “It means making a difference.” Whether standing alongside a corporate CEO or a homeless veteran in search of a chance, Knight lives out the mantra that service never truly ends-it simply takes on new forms.
