Supply Chain Now Radio Episode 105

Supply Chain Now Radio, Episode 105
“Live from the eft Media Zone: Thomas Schmitt with Forward Air”
Broadcast from eft’s 3PL & Supply Chain Summit

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Thomas Schmitt is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Forward Air, Mr. Schmitt served as Management Board Member and Chief Commercial Officer for DB Schenker, a $20 Billion Global Logistics Company since 2015. From 2013 until 2015, Mr. Schmitt was President, CEO and Director of Aqua Terra, Canada’s leading provider of natural spring water. From 2010 until 2012, Mr. Schmitt served as President, CEO and Director of Purolator, Canada’s top parcel and freight transportation company. Prior to joining Purolator, Mr. Schmitt spent 12 years at FedEx in Memphis, TN where he served as CEO of FedEx Supply Chain and SVP of FedEx Solutions. Prior to his time with FedEx, Mr. Schmitt held senior roles at McKinsey & Company. Mr. Schmitt has been a member of the Xynteo Leadership Board since 2018 and a Non-Executive Director of the Freguson plc board since 2019. Mr. Schmitt also served on the Board of Directors of private and public companies such as Dicom Transportation Group, Zooplus AG, Univar, Inc. and Cyberport GmbH. His support of non-profit organizations such as Ballet Memphis and Shelby Farms Park is equally as important to Mr. Schmitt. Mr. Schmitt holds an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School and received his Bachelor of Arts in European Business Administration from Middlesex University. Together with Arnold Perl, Mr. Schmitt wrote “Simple Solutions,” a leadership book published by Wiley & Sons. Learn more about Forward Air Corporation here: https://www.forwardair.com/

Lance D. Roberts serves as Branch Manager at Becker Logistics – a third party logistics company based in Glendale Heights, IL. In this role, he oversees all aspects of the sales and operations for the Irving, Texas facility. At the age of 47, Roberts has been involved in every aspect of the industry. He has spent 31 of his 35 years of business experience in management and leadership positions. A visionary entrepreneur even at a young age, Roberts found ways to make money, selling roses from his mother’s garden and going door-to-door in his Canyon Lake, California neighborhood selling candy. He also held garage sales, selling items around his parent’s house to make money. He paid cash for his first car at age 16 – a 1978 Honda Accord. Roberts spent the first ten years of his professional career at the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association in California, starting as an assistant to the golf pro, and then moving into administration where he was city maintenance manager. He later worked for Gottschalks department store in San Bernardino as a dock worker, and was promoted twice within two weeks to the role of shipping/receiving manager. In 1997 he spent five years with Roadway Express in operations management. During his tenure at Roadway, he successfully completed his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from University of Phoenix. Roberts attributes his promotion at Roadway and successive opportunities to the bachelor’s program. Roberts ran his own company as a truck broker/agent for Freedom Express. He then joined JTS in April 2003 as an agent in the Fresno office. Bringing a small book of business to the company, he quickly developed the dairy division within two months and as a result was promoted in 2003 to Director of Sales for the Dairy division. He left JTS in 2009 as VP of Sales and Marketing and then in 2010 he Open RLS a $65M 3PL & RTC a 20-truck operation. In 2012 Roberts sold the two companies and worked as VP of RMX then in 2016 he opened a consulting firm. Roberts successfully turned around 5 companies & a few M&A due diligence projects including a 100-unit trucking company and helped 3 start ups before joining Becker Logistics. Roberts while working at JTS, received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix in 2007. The masters program prepared him for the working world using real life business applications of the principles taught in the classroom for courses such as business, finance, sales, and human resources – all of which contributed to the creation of the JTS, RLS, RMX  and many of the turnaround strategic business plan. Roberts resides in Fort Worth, Texas along with his wife Amy, step daughter Asha and son Logan and has one step son in college in Wisconsin.  He is an ardent supporter of charitable organizations such as MDA, United Way, and Habitat for Humanity CEC and is active with his local church. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and watching his kids hockey matches. Connect with Lance Roberts on LinkedIn and visit Becker Logistics’ website for more information: https://www.beckerlogistics.com/

Will Haraway is Founder & Lead Evangelist at Backbeat Marketing. Will has 20 years of executive experience in B2B Technology Marketing. Will is a certified analyst relations practitioner by the Knowledge Capital Group and has helped companies including Manhattan Associates, Aptos, Atlantix Global Systems, American Software and Rubicon Global improve their brand reputations with marketing results that help increase sales. Will also serves as a member of the APICS Atlanta Executive Advisory Board. The Backbeat team includes lead generation, digital marketing, media relations and content marketing specialists with a combined 50 years of experience in their chosen disciplines. Connect with Will on LinkedIn and learn more about Backbeat Marketing here: www.backbeatmarketing.com

Scott W. Luton is the founder of Supply Chain Now Radio. He has worked extensively in the end-to-end Supply Chain industry for more than 15 years, appearing in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Dice and Quality Progress Magazine. Scott currently serves as Executive Vice President of APICS Atlanta and was recently named a 2019 Pro to Know in Supply Chain by Supply & Demand Executive. He founded the 2019 Atlanta Supply Chain Awards and also served on the 2018 Georgia Logistics Summit Executive Committee. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and holds the APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) credential. A Veteran of the United States Air Force, Scott volunteers on the Business Pillar for VETLANTA and serves on the advisory board for the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance. He also serves as an advisor with TalentStream, a leading recruiting & staffing firm based in the Southeast. Connect with Scott Luton on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter at @ScottWLuton.

Upcoming Events & Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Learn more about eft: https://www.eft.com/
Learn more about Becker Logistics: https://www.beckerlogistics.com/
“Simple Solutions” by Tom Schmitt: https://tinyurl.com/yxkm85vj
2019 AIAG/SCAC Supply Chain & Quality Conference: https://myscma.com/scac-events/2019-supply-chain-quality/
Georgia Manufacturing Summit on October 9th:  https://www.georgiamanufacturingalliance.com/annual-summit
2019 Atlanta Supply Chain Awards: https://youtu.be/z8QCs8lgyMM?t=1
Follow Supply Chain Now Radio on Twitter: @SCNRadio
SCNR on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/scnr-youtube