Ron Cruse, Logenix International President and CEO: “Our decades of comprehensive experience and success operating on-time and on-budget are unparalleled.”

The Silicon Review

Logenix International is a specialist in operating complex supply chains and large infrastructure logistics to and throughout the most challenging countries and regions of the world. The company provides specialized transportation services to over 140 developing countries from over 35 origins on five continents. Logenix has assisted to bring medicines, electricity, clean water, and agricultural products to hundreds of millions across the developing world—including the most strife-ridden countries across Africa, The Middle East and Asia. No other company in the industry has the experience or demonstrated success operating supply chains and large scale infrastructure projects across the developing world.

Today, Logenix International manages more public health medicines and medical supplies to more developing countries than any other company in the logistics industry.

In conversation with Ron Cruse, President and CEO of Logenix International

Q. What was the motivation behind starting Logenix International?

After graduating from Villanova University I went to New York City where I found a job in the international shipping business. After seven years of handling two of the company’s largest clients in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, I founded my first business, Matrix International. Matrix quickly became a leader in developing world logistics across Africa & Asia. When the Soviet Union fell, I traveled in immediately and set up one of the first Russian-American joint ventures. From the new company operations that emerged I became immersed in every major program in that part of the world—the largest humanitarian operation since WWII which included operating the largest unscheduled airline in the region, delivery of weapons dismantlement equipment according to the START II treaty, modernization of the Chernobyl type reactors, and the rapidly burgeoning oil, gas, and mining businesses. Within six years my company grew from $25 million in sales to almost $100 million.

In the late 90’s, Matrix and the six offices I built across the Commonwealth of Independent States were sold for over $40 million. Three years later I founded Logenix International hiring back the best and brightest from my first company. My inspiration, the ‘a-ha’ moment, was profiled in Forbes Magazine in October of 2012. Immediately after 9-11, I realized that the specific skills and experience I had gained around the world would be in high demand in the new global market order that would arise.

Q. Unanticipated Costs, Potential for Setbacks, Integration Difficulties, and Quality Suffers are an inevitable part of logistics. How do you overcome these without disrupting the business flow?

These challenges are not exceptions to the developing world supply chain logistics Logenix operates. These challenges, some more often than others, happen every day when operating almost exclusively into and throughout the developing world. Rather than manage these issues as exceptions, they are managed as ‘expected’ challenges and extensive preemptive planning and procedures are part of the Logenix logistics management operations. Having over thirty-five years operating into the developing world, we know what, where and how each of these challenges may impact a supply chain, how to prevent them, and how to quickly remedy them when they occur. It is this unique ability, to prevent or successfully manage these challenges, that has made Logenix the industry’s preeminent logistics provider to and throughout the developing world.

Q. There is a talent war in logistics. Among the scarce pool of talent, how do you manage to source the best?

Logenix hires and trains differently than any other logistics company we know of. We hire young, really sharp achievers, not necessarily from a logistics background, as we prefer to train logisticians ‘our’ way. Too much of the logistics world is intentionally siloed, regimenting staff to execute only one facet of a multi-faceted supply chain. We believe this standard industry approach results in very poor success levels for clients. Logenix trains staff from an omni, or whole, supply chain perspective. We strongly believe in the adage, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. While we find the intensive and lengthy learning curve is not for everyone, we find that those that excel in what we term our ‘Steely-Eyed Forwarder Training’ not only are able to provide much more comprehensive communications and logistics successes to clients, but individual job satisfaction skyrockets.

Q. What do you think is the most memorable moment in your career?

It is difficult to pin down one most memorable moment. There have been at least half a dozen moments memorable for very different reasons. I’ve founded two different companies that both grew to 100 million USD revenue, founded one of the first Russian-American joint ventures in the logistics business after the fall of the former Soviet Union (FSU), was involved in both helping to reduce nuclear weapons in the FSU and operating the largest humanitarian assistance program there since WWII, sold a company for USD value in the mid eight figures, operated extremely successfully across Iraq and Afghanistan assisting large infrastructure rebuilding during the conflict years, and nowadays my companies deliver more medicines and medical supplies across the developing world than any other company or NGO, including the United Nations. I’m immensely proud of all of it.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

The need for temperature sensitive medicines, vaccines and testing supplies across the developing has grown exponentially over the past few years—and that need was made even greater due to the pandemic. Logenix has initiated a new service, Logenix PharmaPlus ©, to meet this growing demand. No other company in the world has the knowledge, resources, and experience required to reliably manage the valuable, cool chain required supplies to every country in the developing world, regardless of origin. Additionally, we are always improving current services by staff training, and expansion into necessary geographic areas.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

The global supply chain was put under tremendous stress as a result of the pandemic and the resultant changes will be underway for the next five to ten years. China’s new unfriendly business environment and their catastrophic zero covid policy impact across almost every global supply chain, is resulting in a massive business exodus from China. Many countries will reap a windfall of new corporate investment, but India will be one of, if not the biggest, country winner from the China exodus. Logenix entered India in 2019 and currently has ten offices across the country with over one hundred trained staff while becoming one of the largest, most reliable logistics companies with the highest levels of client satisfaction in the industry. As India grows to what is expected to be the world’s third largest economy by 2030, Logenix is positioned to become the best, most reliable global provider in that country.