Chris O’Brien, our incoming CEO, recently joined The Freight Pod to discuss his leadership journey and vision for Armada’s future. Watch the episode here: https://lnkd.in/gvcAt2TC
Host of The Freight Pod | Former CEO / Founder at MoLo Solutions | EY Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year 2021
Last week I learned why Chris O'Brien is one of my father's favorite people in our industry. Chris and I sat down for nearly 2 hours to record the latest episode of The Freight Pod. After a 31 year career at C.H. Robinson, Chris recently joined Armada Sunset Holdings, where he will soon take on the role as CEO, bringing the family of companies together as One Armada. Chris started at Robinson like many others do, in an entry level role slanging freight and trucks. Granted, brokerage looked a little different back then. Cell phones were just becoming a thing. Tracking loads included waiting for drivers to reach out from the nearest payphone. Grit and hustle though, were as important back then as they are today. Chris' career at Robinson included a crucial on-site role at a shipper in North Carolina, followed by opening his own office in Raleigh. After hiring some studs that would one day become CEOs on their own (ex: Mitch Luciano), and becoming one of the fastest growing offices in the CH network, Chris was shipped overseas to tackle a new challenge integrating an acquisition in Europe. He would eventually come back to join the executive leadership team in Minneapolis, where he'd end his career as Chief Commercial Officer. Chief Commercial Officer at C.H. Robinson...if there's anyone who can share some lessons on sales and creating the best customer experience in freight, it's the guy who led the commercial org for the most successful and largest business in our space. Now, he's taking on an entire new challenge with Armada. We dove deep into the strategy he and the team will be deploying to bring together their family of businesses. Armada is a unique company in our space, almost hard to classify. Supporting restaurant supply chains is no easy task, but with a network designed to execute redistribution, provide much-needed inventory visibility, and the right engineering systems, Armada brings significant value to it's customer base. Coming into a legacy company that has already had success, tasked with bringing about positive change, Chris shares his approach with us: a mindset of listening broadly, anchoring around growth, and building collaboratively on an already strong culture. I'm excited to see where this company goes from here, and hope you all enjoy my conversation with Chris as much as I did. Episode is live on all streaming platforms, with full video available on YouTube.