GreatwideÆs Gulisano named ParcelPort CEO
Chief Customer Officer Vincent Gulisano officially left Greatwide Logistics Services on Aug. 21 to become chief executive officer of ParcelPort, a small non-asset-based warehousing, distribution and fulfillment outfit based in Arizona.
Gulisano told AmericanShipper.com he wasn't actively looking for a new job, but that the opportunity to have an ownership stake and lead a company was too good to pass up.
ParcelPort offers a variety of traditional value-added logistics services such as transportation management, freight consolidation, pick-and-pack, kitting and shrink wrapping.
It also does a lot of parcel-related delivery for business-to-business and direct-to-consumer customers, many of whom import their products from Europe and Asia, from its two fulfillment centers in Connecticut and Arizona. The company's fulfillment role extends to running customer-facing Web sites for ordering and processing payments, such as the front-end system that allows employees at Bayer Pharmaceuticals to place internal orders for samples and materials.
Other customers include Sikorsky Helicopters and Pitney Bowes, a large office automation and document management services provider.
ParcelPort plans to open another warehouse in the Atlanta area early next year and eventually expects to have facilities in Dallas and Los Angeles, either through an acquisition or operating a facility for an anchor customer. The larger geographic footprint will enable the company to provide two-day parcel delivery to 95 percent of the United States without incurring additional costs for traveling across several high-priced shipping zones.
Gulisano said the company also plans to expand into domestic and international bulk freight forwarding, including truckload and less-than-truckload brokerage and ocean containers. He said the company plans to make an acquisition soon and have the division operational sometime late this year.
ParcelPort has been in business for eight years, five under the current ownership group.
Gulisano spent four years at Greatwide, the Dallas-based trucking and logistics provider that boasts the nation's largest refrigerated fleet for dedicated contract carriage. After the company centralized its structure following a bout with bankruptcy he was put in charge of enterprise-wide sales and business development, helping to reconnect the brand with customers and launching the company's first advertising campaign in the trade press. Prior to the reorganization he was president of Greatwide's warehousing and distribution business.
Gulisano has held executive-level logistics positions at Panalpina, APL Logistics, Eagle Global Logistics and USCO Logistics during his 25-year career. ' Eric Kulisch