this opportunities to introduce david shapira. mr. chairman, you read -- or you highlight the some of his business background. and that's i think one of the most significant parts of his record and resume. i won't dwell on the details of his background. but i do want to say something about his character. i think that's what i'll start with. we all know the challenges of being in elected public service. appointed public service comes with challenges as well. the process itself is substantial challenge and i'm always amazed and gratified that we have people willing to put themselves forward for public service even though the process to get there to be confirmed or even to be considered is challenging. i think that's -- the fact that david is willing to do this is an indication of his character and also his commitment to our country. he is the ceo and chairman or has been from 1980 until 2012 of giant eagle. since 2012, he served as executive chairman of giant eagle, one of the most successful businesses that i know he went to stanford.

mr. shapira, it is the tradition to swear witnesses. if you'll please rise and raise your right hand. >> do you swear that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i swear to god. >> we'll listen to your testimony. >> thank you very much. chairman johnson if i can just say i'm blown away by senator casey coming and saying what he did. i really thank you for that. >> thank you for consideration to the united states postal services board of governors. i want to thank president obama for this honor and for the vote of confidence that it represents. it is truly humbling. i will work hard to show that your consent is well deserved. i also want to thank my wife cindy and family for this undertaking. if i'm confirmed, they will be my partners. my family is truly my greatest gift and nothing i've accomplished would have been possible or even desirable without them. >> is she the young woman over your left shoelder? >> she's this very young but follow woman thank you. >> we thank your wil

mr. shapira is the director of giant eagle. his leadership they saw huge growth, expansion in the pittsburgh area to ohio, ind indiana, west virginia and maryland. there is decreasing volume and in fiscal year 2014 with net loss of 5.a$5.5 billion. they need to counter the loss in revenue by changing consumer behavior. the ability to expand to customer preference that giant eagle has shown is something that postal service vitally needs plchlt schapiro, welcome. we welcome forward to your testimony. we have bob casey from pennsylvania that would tlik say a few words prior to your testimony. >> before we speak let me just say we don't trust senator casey. >> that's why we were hoping senator toomey would be here. >> maybe pat will show up too. seriously, great to see you, bob. thanks for coming. this is great. >> i want to thank the chairman and the ranking nobody give me this opportunity to introduce david shapira. mr. chairman you read -- or you highlight the some of his business background. and that's i think one of the most s

mr. shapira will bring a unique business perspective to the board that is very much welcomed if confirmedby nine and four of the board nominees pending before the senate would double the size of at least the membership of the board and we need that. i see real opportunity here to make progress towards strengthening our postal service. and closing want to thank both of our nominees and hopefully admiral and hopefully build call them governor, a great job. i love and you will too. thank you all and look forward to hearing from you, get into negative. thanks a lot. >> thank you. i welcome it is their tradition of his committee to swear witnesses in so we please rise and raise your right hand? to use with the test when you give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you got? thank you. please be seated. vice admiral peter neffenger crisis as vice commandant of the chinese coast guard. during his 34 years of service is held key leadership positions. from 2003-2006 he served as a sector commander in los angeles california, home to the largest port complex and use. f

mr. shapira and i talked about on the phone was one of the three round tables that we talked about and we invited people to come in from the post office and other walks of life from the post office and we said what are your ideas and i was delighted to hear how much creative ideas there are and this was just scratching the surface. it can't just be cut, cut, cut. i think they have reduced by half of the part-time employees and they reduced by half and -- by a third the number of full time post offices around the country and down right-sizing and now there are ways to help them in pays like the preretirement pension to make it fair. but we have some great opportunities and we're going to have to fun fixing this and i look forward to doing that. and one of the best things i learned in life was from my failures and not so much from my successes. and we've all had failures. and when you look at the dissolution and the bankruptcy of your company's former subsidiary, was it farmer -- could you give us onnia of what you -- idea of what you learned from that that might be applicable from here. >>

to thank the chairman and the ranking member for giving me this opportunities to introduce david shapira. mr. chairman, you read -- or you highlight the some of his business background. and that's i think one of the most significant parts of his record and resume. i won't dwell on the details of his background. but i do want to say something about his character. i think that's what i'll start with. we all know the challenges of being in elected public service. appointed public service comes with challenges as well. the process itself is substantial challenge and i'm always amazed and gratified that we have people willing to put themselves forward for public service even though the process to get there to be confirmed or even to be considered is challenging. i think that's -- the fact that david is willing to do this is an