Tom Jones has come out of retirement from the logistics industry to take up a new role at Palogix Supply Chain Services as vice-president of sales national accounts.
Jones was previously with Ryder Supply Chain Solutions as senior vice-president and general manager, but left suddenly at the end of January 2013, announcing his retirement after a 24-year career with the company and 35 years in the logistics industry.
“Ryder was changing and I had been there a long time,” he told Automotive Logistics this week. “They were looking in a different direction so it worked out well for both of us; they treated me very well.”
Jones said he wasn’t planning to get back into the logistics industry, however, after extended discussions with Palogix’s CEO Mike Meier, the offer was too good to pass up.
“I couldn’t find any reason to say no to it,” he said. “Everything fell into place, including location, responsibilities and company culture.”
Palogix SCS, a division of Palogix International, is an integrated logistics provider, including transport, returnable container and premium freight management, serving a range of industries including automotive and retail. The supply chain division started operations at the end of 2012.
Part of what is attractive about the culture at Palogix for Jones is the aggressive attitude to growing the business.
“It is exciting to work for a smaller company that is more flexible and has a can-do attitude about it whatever the problem is,” said Jones. “That is refreshing.”
As at Ryder, Jones will continue to work with automotive customers in addition to those outside of the industry, something of a 50:50 mix at the moment he said, just three weeks into the new role.
His goals longer term are in line with those of the Palogix, namely to broaden the company base and include more customers.
“Right now we have a lot of business with a relative handful of customers and so broadening the customer base is a priority,” said Jones. “I’m looking to bring new customers in to the company as part of the key goal that Palogix has.”
