Enrique Alvarez and Brian Oxley met while working at the Boston Consulting Group, where they forged a friendship and decided to start a business together, setting their sights on the logistics industry.
“Starting Vector with a very unique, results-based mentality and a passion to give back sounded, for many, naïve at best,” Alvarez said. “But taking the risk to double down on our culture has probably been the most important risk I have taken and the one we (as a team) continue to take every day.”
Alvarez and Oxley saw an opportunity to serve companies and nonprofits who deserved better than the traditional logistics company. The industry, they said, relied on a silo mentality; time-based management styles; a male-dominated, hierarchical structure; and low accountability, commitment and passion. Alvarez and Osley set out to do better.
Vector Global Logistics, where Alvarez is managing partner, was launched in 2013. “By combining a strategic background with logistics and supply chain experience as well as a focus on social impact, they have not only skillfully moved products around the world, but have improved lives and earned the trust of their clients through long-term relationships,” the company said. “Vector’s driving force is to deliver logistics with purpose, make their clients happy through a results-only mentality, and see their team, clients and communities succeed. Enrique likes to say that Vector wants to change the world, we just happen to do it through logistics.”
Alvarez plans to build a company of “intrapreneurs,” where employees feel ownership and think as an entrepreneur within the company. This is the impetus for giving employees a financial stake in the company so that it is employee-owned. The company is at $100 million in annual revenue with 150 employees and five offices, and it expects to hit $140 million in revenue with 450 employees and 10 offices by 2025.
“Enrique is a very hands-on leader who believes in empowering everyone, removing silos and having a flat corporate structure so that everyone feels like a stakeholder in the company,” Alvarez’s team said. “He came up with our motto, ‘Logistics with Purpose,’ and is very focused on ensuring the team and company give back as much as possible at all levels.”
Vector’s global network helped 34 charities in 2021, and in the last year it added new causes to support, including helping people in war-torn Ukraine.
American Logistics Aid Network recognized Vector with its Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Relief Award for Vector’s relief to Ukraine. Vector Global Logistics and Alvarez were nominated for the Go Beyond Profit Champion Award by fellow Georgia business leaders for the company’s dedication to leveraging logistics to change the world.
