• TPM24
  • March 3-6, 2024 | Long Beach Convention Center

Jon Monroe

President, Jon Monroe Consulting, Founder, SYSM Technologies

I have had the good fortune of having worked in almost every aspect of the supply chain; ocean carriers (U.S. Lines and Hyundai), forwarders (Circle Int’l, Emery Ocean Services, BAX Global, Topocean and Worldwide Logistics) BCOs (Saks 5th Ave, General Motors, Frito Lay/Pepsico and Pioneer Electronics) and ports (Georgia Port Authority & Shanghai International Port Group). The breadth of my experience allows me to look at things with a different perspective. In May of 2021, I was tasked to set up the U.S. terminal network and team for Transfar Shipping, the Cainaio Logistics (Alibaba Company) backed container shipping line. Though setting up a shipping line in the midst of a pandemic is not an ideal time, it has been an exciting time.

My travels through and love of China, span more than three decades representing China based companies with seven of those years spent traversing the Yangtze River with my partner. This resulted in the writing and distribution of a 381-page e-book, Yangtze River World Report, a documentation of the containerization of the Yangtze River distributed by the JOC in 2010. Under the current circumstances, this type of research could not be done. During the same period, I managed to develop a number of middleware order management systems for the likes of Topocean, De Well and UWL. I have onboarded more than 100 companies and thousands of factories on these platforms, most, China based factories. Today, I help companies digitalize their import supply chain through SYSM a new middleware order, management platform I developed.

In January 2020, my family and I were on the 2nd to last Delta flight back to the U.S. before services were shut down due to COVID. In March of 2020, I began distributing a weekly blog (now a monthly) on the COVID China supply chain. 

Sessions With Jon Monroe

Wednesday, 6 March

  • 08:30am - 09:00am (PST) / 06/mar/2024 04:30 pm - 06/mar/2024 05:00 pm

    Guidance to BCOs in the Post-COVID Environment

    In his late-November newsletter, consultant Jon Monroe says “BCOs have a lot to think about and plan for, to get ready for 2024. There are so many underlying obstacles or potential headwinds that will need to be addressed.” Among those are the possibility of the market unexpectedly tightening — despite the prevailing narrative of overcapacity and the failure of multiple carrier GRI attempts in 2023 — and how BCOs should plan for what might seem like a remote possibility. “Looking ahead to 2024, there is a concern: if carriers choose to tighten capacity with the same intensity as witnessed in 2020, the market may once again grapple with soaring rates and constrained vessel space,” he wrote to subscribers. Industry stakeholders listen to Jon because he is the rare individual in shipping today who brings to the table the full gamut of experience and the willingness and ability to expound publicly and articulately in ways that are highly relevant to BCOs and other market participants. In a career stretching back to United States Lines, he logged time with a variety of organizations, including Circle International, Emery Worldwide, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Top Ocean, DeWell, and Transfar Shipping. In addition, he has built significant BCO technology platforms that are in use today. In a late-2023 market that looks deceptively similar coming out of COVID versus how it entered it, the reality is it’s a new world that requires players across the spectrum to reorient themselves anew. To do that. it’s worth spending time with Jon, who will bring his perspective to the TPM24 audience as one of the rare individuals who can provide the informed straight talk that market participants will find certain value in.