DC Velocity - August 2011

QYou haven’t wasted any time getting involved in industry associations and various civic and professional groups. Right now, for instance, you serve as the chair of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ Young Professionals Committee. What prompted you to get involved?

AGetting involved is one thing that my parents always tressed to us. We learned the importance of being charitable and being generous with our time. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work in the past. I coached youth soccer and did some tutoring on the West Side of Chicago in a Catholic school.

By staying actively involved with the industry, I am also able to stay abreast of current trends, which is extremely useful in my work. That is one of the biggest reasons why I chose to get involved in the industry. I think CSCMP is an incredible organization. I really wanted to get more young professionals engaged with CSCMP because you often see this gap in membership—their student membership lapses and then it’s another few years before they rejoin the organization. We need to basically fill that gap.

QWhat would you say to other young professionals to encourage them to consider a career in logistics and supply chain management?

AI think now more than ever, companies are competing on their supply chains. So, the companies with the best supply chains are the companies that are going to be here five, 10, 20 years from now.

Supply chain really is the intersection of a lot of different aspects of a company. You’ve got inventory management, you’ve got procurement, you’ve got finance, and you’ve got transportation, so getting some experience there is really important in terms of building your career. These days, we’re seeing more and more people with some sort of background in the supply chain and logistics area ascending to higher leadership positions.

QDo you have any closing thoughts?

AI wish there was a way to communicate the importance of the things going on in this industry across America. If you think about everything you wear, you eat, you use on a daily basis, I would guess at least 90 percent of it has been on a truck or train or boat at some point.

But as important as they are, logistics and transportation issues don’t receive much media attention. There’s the highway bill that’s up for reauthorization. That is not front page news. There’s hours of service. That is not front page news. Every American should care about that because it affects the cost and availability of all the items they take for granted. ;