Transportation & Logistics

Alex heads EKA’S Transportation and Clean Tech practices. He is deeply experienced in the field, with nearly two decades of involvement at all levels of the public and private sectors. Most recently, Alex served as a senior executive with the Port of Long Beach, the fifth largest container port in the world. While acting as the port’s managing director of trade and operations, Alex helped shape and implement some of the most cutting-edge policy initiatives in the areas of international goods movement, regional transportation, infrastructure development and clean technology. His successful development of the clean trucks program, oversight of the middle harbor redevelopment project and the Long Beach oil tax ballot initiative were transformative. He regularly speaks before decision makers at all levels of federal government, including congress and the US Trade Representative on competitive issues like global trade forecasts, regional infrastructure projects and pending World Trade Organization matters.

A featured guest on CNN and Fox Business News, Alex’s insights on trade, international business and public policy have been sought after and featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the Los Angeles Times.

Prior to his career in public service, Alex practiced law as a senior associate at the firm of Flynn, Delich & Wise, specializing in international trade and maritime law. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Michigan and a JD from Loyola Law School.

Leonard Jackson, is the founder and CEO of Norfleet Transportation and Leonard Jackson, Inc.  Norfleet Transportation is a transportation logistics company.  They have over 100 employees and the company is on track to do over 60 million dollars in revenue this year. Leonard has over 30 years of work experience and has been in business since 1996 to include doing business worldwide. We also have an online course that we sell to the public, that teaches how to become freight broker agent.  Freight Broker Agents on average earn a six-figure income and work from home.  The company has advertised on TV as well as on social media. You can learn more about Norfleet Transportation at www.norfleettransportation.com and their online course at www.norfleettraining.com.

 Leonard Jackson, Inc is an entertainment company established in 2002.  Leonard has acted, produced, written and authored many projects. As an actor, Leonard has starred in over 150 TV commercials as well as several films and TV shows.  He has also written several scripts that have been optioned in Hollywood and authored a book titled “How to Become a Successful Commercial Actor”. This book can be found at amazon.com, Samuel French bookstore or on my website www.leonardjackson.com.  Leonard has hosted a Podcast called “No Half Stepping with Leonard Jackson”. You can find it at nohalfstepping.com or you can find it anywhere where you listen to podcasts.

Gaurang provides mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory to business services companies, leading Lincoln’s logistics and transportation sector. He has more than 15 years of M&A expertise and experience in sell-side and buy-side transactions for leading private equity groups, privately held businesses and publicly traded companies.

Gaurang has garnered a deep understanding of the value drivers of service-based businesses.

Prior to joining Lincoln in 2004, Gaurang worked as an investment banking analyst at Citigroup and as Head of Corporate Development for Clover Technologies Group, a more than $1 billion provider of aftermarket solutions owned by Golden Gate Capital.

Gaurang earned a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science (with honors) from the University of Illinois.

Jordan Wadsworth, Managing Director, has 15 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions, and leveraged finance. Prior to joining Sun Capital in 2006, Mr. Wadsworth served as an associate at J.P. Morgan in the investment banking group where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt financings, and equity offerings. Mr. Wadsworth received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Wolpov serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Whiplash Inc. He is responsible for leading the company’s vision and strategy in omnichannel fulfillment solutions, driving business growth and achieving results. He was most recently President and Chief Commercial Officer, where he built and nurtured customer relationships that allowed Port Logistics Group, now Whiplash Inc., to grow from a regional collection of acquired businesses to a national logistics provider, achieving year-over-year revenue growth of nearly 15 percent. Jeff continues to hold a board seat at the company. Prior to joining in 2008, Jeff was the founder and CEO of Distribution Solutions, which he grew from a startup business to a $50M regional logistics firm that served as the platform company for Whiplash Inc. Jeff is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS

Mr. Al-Alaoui currently serves on the board of Total Transportation Services and is the founder of Afamia Financial. He was previously the chairman of the board of Something Sweet, and also served on the boards of Portal Service Company and Western Emulsions.

Prior to founding Afamia Financial, Mr. Al-Alaoui was a principal at Saybrook Corporate Opportunity Funds, a Los Angeles-based special situations private equity firm that makes both direct and distressed secondary market investments in companies with difficulty accessing capital due to a variety of operational, legal or structural issues.

EARLY CAREER

Prior to joining Saybrook, Mr. Al-Alaoui was in the Capital Markets Group of Houlihan Lokey where he participated in public and private debt offerings. Prior thereto, Mr. Al-Alaoui worked in the Corporate Finance Group of investment and merchant banking firm Libra Securities.

Mr. Al-Alaoui started his career with KPMG’s Structured Finance Group, where he participated in over $30 billion of securitization transactions. Mr. Al-Alaoui received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst ® designation.