03/08/2016
SMC³ CEO Jack Middleton retires
Peachtree City, GA. – SMC³ CEO Jack Middleton, who has spent nearly 20 years leading the organization, has retired from the company. With his retirement, Andrew Slusher officially becomes president and CEO of SMC³.
Middleton will serve in a part-time advisory role for the next year.
Middleton has spent his entire career at SMC³, which first came to life in the 1930s as the Southern Motor Carriers Rate Conference. A long-time veteran of the trucking industry, Middleton led the organization through two decades of unparalleled change and expansion. He ushered in SMC³ products like CzarLite, RateWare® XL and Bid$ense, and he recently oversaw the acquisition of Transportation Costing Group in Rockville, Md., and the development of CzarLite® XL. During his time at the organization, he founded two annual conferences, Jump Start and Connections, which provide the industry with strategic educational content and quality networking opportunities.
After moving the organization from midtown Atlanta to Peachtree City in 1999, Middleton’s time at SMC³ also began to be defined by charity work. He currently serves as the president of the board at the youth services organization Bloom, and SMC³ is a sponsor of their annual fundraising event. A patron of the arts, Middleton and SMC³ also help fund other community offerings.
“Through SMC³ and my own private donations,” he said, “we’ve contributed a good bit of money to the community, focusing on youth protection and the arts.” Middleton noted that because SMC³ is headquartered in Peachtree City, a relatively small city in the shadow of Atlanta, the organization’s altruism has more of an impact.
“In Atlanta, SMC³ is a small fish in a big pond,” he continued. “Down here, our charitable contributions literally change lives.”
Middleton has been weighing his retirement for at least the past five years, going through what he says is a “plethora of emotions.” Middleton joined SMC³ straight out of college and has dedicated his life to the organization.
“Retiring is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” he said. “But it’s time for a new generation of leaders at SMC³. This is what’s best for the organization. I only hope I haven’t overstayed my welcome.”
Middleton’s time at SMC³ has been preserved in the new book “Long Haul Legacy: SMC³ and the Evolution of Motor Freight” by F. Martin Harmon. In the book, Harmon traces the history of less-than-truckload transportation, weaving in the SMC³ story by way of interviews with current and former employees, and historical documents from the SMC³ archives.
About SMC³
SMC³ is the leading provider of data, technology and education as an integrated solution to the freight transportation community. SMC³ delivers its core competency – LTL pricing expertise – through collaborative pricing technology that supports end-to-end, ongoing predictability in shipper/3PL-carrier relationships. Best known for its CzarLite®, Bid$ense® and RateWare® solutions, the company serves more than 5,000 customers throughout North America, including shippers, carriers, logistics service providers and freight-payment companies. The company also partners with leading transportation software developers for complete interoperability. For more information about SMC³, visit www.smc3.com.
Media Contact
Beth Malik
Director of Marketing
SMC³
Office: (770) 486-5823
bmalik@smc3.com