Benjamin Gordon (businessman)


Benjamin Gordon is an American entrepreneur who founds, advises, and invests in supply chain companies. He serves as CEO and Managing Partner of BG Strategic Advisors and Cambridge Capital, companies he founded. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida.

Early life and education

Gordon was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. Transport and logistics ran in Gordon's family. In 1904, his great-grandfather started a New York-based horse-and-buggy business, and his grandfather founded a truck-leasing business in New England where he had worked summers.
In 1999, while at HBS, he and classmate Tania Yannas founded 3Plex, recognized as one the early internet logistics companies, with The New York Times crediting Gordon for imagining "a business-to-business Web site that would allow shipping agents to communicate better with both truckers and shippers." Business Week cited Gordon among early entrepreneurs using the web to "streamline the consolidation and outsourcing of freight trucking", noting that the 26-year-old's fledgling business had attracted $15 million in venture financing. In 2000, their company was a finalist in the HBS New Venture Competition.

Career

Gordon served as CEO of 3PLex from its inception, leading the company through three rounds of fundraising totaling $28 million from investors which included Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BancBoston Ventures, CNF, and Ionian. The company was acquired by Maersk in 2002.
In 2002, Gordon founded BG Strategic Advisors, an investment banking firm focused on mergers and acquisitions in the transportation, logistics, and supply chain sectors. BGSA hosts an annual conference of supply chain and logistics executives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In 2009, Gordon founded Cambridge Capital, which focuses on investments in logistics and supply chain companies. The company's noteworthy investments include XPO Logistics, Grand Junction, and Bringg.
Also in 2009, Gordon founded EcoSquid, an e-commerce marketplace enabling consumers to resell or recycle their used electronics. In 2012, the company was sold to uSell.

Recognition by business media

Gordon has appeared frequently as a commentator and analyst on CNBC. He has been quoted as an expert on supply chain management, logistics, technology, and investment issues in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fox Business, and Authority. He has authored articles published in Fortune, CNBC, and various supply chain industry publications, such as Supply Chain Management Review and Freightwaves. He has also been interviewed as an authority on corporate governance by in the wake of the failed WeWork IPO, published in Yahoo! Finance.

Social entrepreneurship and philanthropy

In 1997, Gordon founded GesherCity, a non-profit that connects young adults to Jewish communities through online and in-person experiences. One of the first social networks that allowed people to create online communities based on self-selected categories, by 2007 the project scaled up to 20 cities and 100,000 members before merging into the Jewish Community Center Association, as recognized repeatedly in the JCCA's annual report for that year and Jewish community media.