Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship Celebrates Great Entrepreneurs and Emerging Leaders

BOONE, N.C., Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As the revolution in entrepreneurship education gains momentum across the United States, the Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University is bringing together current and future generations of great entrepreneurs to share best practices in innovation and sustainability.  The Center will participate in the annual Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneurship Summit in the University's Walker College of Business on Friday, October 3, 2014 on the ASU campus in Boone, North Carolina. With startup businesses being a significant force in the growth of the United States' economy, the Entrepreneurship Summit provides an opportunity for students and community members to learn from successful business owners. One of the summit's key speakers will be Paul Thompson, Founder and Chairman of Hickory-based Transportation Insight, a global lead logistics provider on a growth trajectory to triple in size and become a $5 billion company by 2020.

"I am honored to be a part of the Entrepreneurship Summit which underscores innovation for business growth," says Thompson. "As we collaborate with students to optimize their entrepreneurial efforts, our hope is they'll gain insight into how companies and their customers can achieve sustained growth.   At Transportation Insight, we have a co-managed approach where we measure our success by the satisfaction of our clients. We provide technology, supply chain expertise and continuous improvement analytics to help clients make pro-active business decisions. Our solutions create long-term enterprise value for our clients, so that they can outpace their competition."

Thompson's presentation, "From Start-Up to $1 Billion - An Entrepreneur's Success Story," will explore the importance of people, processes and business models with a focus on collaboration, execution and an overarching commitment to continuous improvement.  Thompson's entrepreneurial expertise spans more than 25 years of executive experience, including founding or co-founding six other transportation and logistics companies.

Recent figures show that 28 percent of ASU students now aspire to own their own business. New companies created by entrepreneurs such as these have generated an average of 1.5 million new jobs per year across the U.S. for more than thirty years.

Managing Director of the Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship Erich Schlenker says the Center and its future leaders take a distinctive approach to tackling business issues. "What makes the Center unique is that students across all disciplines – Education, Finance, Industrial Design and more – bring very diverse views to the table to develop solutions to business challenges," says Schlenker. "The result is an interdisciplinary magic – a level of creative synergy that may not have otherwise been achieved within a group of like-minded individuals. To that end, the Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneurship Summit brings together a very compelling list of speakers from very diverse backgrounds that deliver real-world perspectives on the challenges they've faced and the huge opportunities that entrepreneurship makes available."

Entrepreneurship education as a distinct discipline is rapidly being adopted on campuses around the world. Entrepreneur Magazine notes in the last thirty years the number of dedicated programs supporting entrepreneurship quadrupled. According to the Kaufman Foundation, a private non-partisan foundation, the teaching of entrepreneurial skills – including leadership, risk management, and innovation – is one of the fastest growing areas of undergraduate education with approximately a third of all U.S. business incubators located in colleges and universities.

The Entrepreneurship Summit will be held in ASU's Walker College of Business at Peacock Hall, formerly known as Raley Hall. The event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and is open to students and the public.

Transportation Insight, for which the Center for Entrepreneurship is named, has been honored on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America for seven straight years; named a Top 10 third-party logistics (3PL) provider with Best Range of Services and Best Technology by Global Trade magazine; and recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal as #1 in total revenue growth in its Fast 50 list of fastest-growing companies in the Charlotte, North Carolina Metropolitan area.

About The Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship

The Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University helps students and alumni launch successful businesses, enhance their future prospects and the region's economy. The Center was created in 2006 to support a rapidly increasing group of student entrepreneurs. In 2011, the Center was named for Transportation Insight, a nationally-recognized supply chain management company following a private gift.

Since 2011 the Center has expanded its offerings to students, including a student accelerator program, and built upon the foundation of existing programs such as the Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneur Summit, Pitch Your Idea Contest and the Dale Tweedy Mentoring Program.  In addition, the Center supports the local chapter of the Association of Student Entrepreneurs. The Center is a member of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) founded in 1996 and currently made up of more than 200 university-based entrepreneurship centers. For more information visit www.entrepreneurship.appstate.edu.

About Transportation Insight, LLC

Transportation Insight is a global lead logistics provider with more than $1.6 billion in supply chain spend under management. For over a decade, the 3PL has partnered with hundreds of manufacturers, distributors and retailers to achieve significant cost savings, reduce cycle times and improve customer satisfaction rates by providing customized supply chain solutions. Transportation Insight offers a Co-managed Logistics® form of 3PL, carrier sourcing, freight bill audit and payment services, state-of-the-art transportation management system (TMS) applications and business intelligence. Its logistics services include domestic transportation, supply chain analytics, international transportation, warehouse sourcing, LEAN consulting and supply chain sourcing of indirect materials. Headquartered in Hickory, NC, Transportation Insight has secondary operating centers in Charlotte, NC, Bentonville, AR and Atlanta, GA, as well as more than 40 client support offices across North America. For more about Transportation Insight, visit www.transportationinsight.com.

Contact:
Lisa Santos Farley
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 828-485-5000

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SOURCE Transportation Insight, LLC

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