November 2013
| Business World Magazine | 165
problem-solver by trade. For much of the
18 years since he emerged from the Uni-
versity of Virginia with a degree in civil
engineering, Read has sought ways to
break down the barriers – real or perceived
– that keep companies from achieving
maximum efficiency. Early in his career,
he founded a firm that built an App en-
abling contractors to submit coherent sets
of licensing and permitting documents to
their individual local municipalities, each
of whom had a unique set of codes and
exceptions to navigate. It was a natural,
albeit sometimes chaotic proving ground
for his current role at Agistix, and the ex-
ception oriented nature of global supply
chain.
As Agistix is nearing the 10-year an-
niversary of its founding, Read affirms
the enthusiasm that led to the company’s
beginnings in 2004 shows no signs of
wavering, nor the company’s confidence.
“Our goal is to capture data and turn that
data into usable information that helps
save time and save money by operating
more efficiently,” says Read. “It’s fun and
it’s exciting and we’re pretty passionate
about what we do and how we do it. I
think the industry is still catching up to
what we’re doing in visibility. This is sort
of a new frontier and there’s a new appre-
ciation for being able to capture all this
data.”
Agistix’s main objective of enabling
“true visibility” in its clients’ supply
chains is largely the product of the rapid
growth of the Internet and its business po-
tential over the past several years.
“I believe that there’s kind of a chang-
ing of the guard in supply chain. Technol-
ogy has changed a lot in the past decade,
and it’s been fun to be a part of. Exhaust-
ing, but fun,” says Read. “It’s nice to see
