by Ryan Markiewicz | Nov 4, 2024 | Berlin's Wall
Check this out. Pretty cool.
https://fb.watch/vDPLg3YjSl/?
I know you may not be a Bills fan (or a football fan). And some of you folks overseas might not even know much about football at all (though I know the folks in England, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil do, and our BIG fans 😉).
But I am a big Buffalo Bills fan and was at the game Sunday. It was an amazing game. Came down to the last play. The Bills did not play anywhere near their best game and still won. That’s not easy to do against NFL competition. And Miami’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa played GREAT!
And though many of you know I am often critical of Bills’ coach, Sean McDermott, I think this was a very ballsy call to go for the winning FG as he did.
- It was over 60 yards. Longer than Bass has ever hit and longer than any in Buffalo Bills history.
- TBass (the Bills kicker) has had a rough year plus. He seemed to lose his confidence toward the end of last year and has been shaky.
- McDermott going for the FG in that situation took guts. The safer bet was a Hail Mary or even a punt to go into OT. The danger with the FG attempt is that 1. It could be blocked and returned for a TD or 2. If Bass misses (and who thought he would make it, honestly?), the Dolphins get the ball on the Bills 49 with only a few seconds left but with 2 timeouts. One 15-20 yard completion the Dolphins they could have kicked a much more makeable game-winning field goal. Gutsy call.
Now, I know how much McDermott and the rest of the team have had TBass’ back. And no one would have blamed him for missing a 61-yarder at the buzzer. But had he missed, and had the Dolphins scored a last-second FG, McDermott would have been pilloried for going with a guy who has been inconsistent all year (including missing an XP earlier in the game).
So, my hat’s off to McDermott for sticking with his guy, for having faith in him, and for putting his own rep on the line by bringing him out in that situation.
And clearly, you can see from the video how happy all of Bass’ teammates were for him.
And I would not be surprised if this kick (hopefully 🤞) restores Bass’ confidence, turns his season around, and maybe even saves his career.
Good for him. Good for McDermott. Good for the team. A good lesson for all of us. We have to keep faith in each other, lift up those who are down, don’t give up on them during tough times. What makes a team stronger.
Go Bills! -JB
PS–here’s a look at the play:
https://x.com/danfetes/status/1853183208164151737?s=61&t=wOTQcoLRVs8n-Qq-W8brCQ
by Ryan Markiewicz | Oct 30, 2024 | Berlin's Wall
All,
Since you probably know I am a big Buffalo Bills fan (and since the Bills theme song is Shout) you likely think this is about the Buffalo Bills. But it’s not.
I am also a big BUFFALO fan in general. I went to school there. Spent my 20’s there. Started my family there. And only left at 30 because I needed a job.
So this is just a shout-out to Buffalo.
Today, a bunch of us went up there to visit our good friend and customer, Bill Hanes. I first met Bill at the Bills stadium when our good friends at M&T Bank invited us to a dinner with Buffalo Bills General Manager, Brandon Beane. Thank you, M&T guys 🙂
Bill and I struck up a friendship from there. We email a lot. I’ve gone to games with him. He is a long time fan and friends with many of the older Bills players and coaches. Great guy.
Anyway, we went to see him today and even though we don’t do a ton of business with his company, to me it’s just as good to get to know good people, even if you don’t do a lot of business together. One of the best parts of the job is the people you get to meet and hopefully get to work with. But even if no business, still glad you know them.
So, for lunch Bill takes us to his favorite local gin mill. Google Gin Mill if you’re not from here 🙂 There are dozens of these in Buffalo. Nothing fancy. Just great food and friendly people. Buffalo is known as ‘The City of Good Neighbors’ and deserves that title.
Well, Bill is (naturally) a regular there and we moved a few tables together to make one big enough for the 8 of us at lunch. Just then, an older gentleman–clearly another “regular”– wearing a veteran’s ball cap walks in and I hear him kind of jokingly tell the waitress, “Hey, They Took My Table!”
Bill (who obviously knew him) said, “Sorry John. Those other guys took the table for 8 so we had to make do.” No biggie. All good.
Well, I see the Veteran is wearing an old Buffalo Braves t-shirt.
Now, I know 95% of you won’t know this, but Buffalo had a (really good) NBA team back in the ’70s, and I was a big fan. That’s a whole ‘nother story for another day.”
I walk over and introduce myself. We shake hands and talk about the Braves a bit. Lunch comes (Beef on Weck for me, of course) (Google too, I guess 🤪).
A few minutes later, I notice John walk out of the bar. He comes back in a few minutes later with a plastic bag and hands it to me. It’s a gift—a vintage Buffalo Braves t-shirt.
Just like that 😊
And, believe this or not (but it’s true either way)–From all my years living in and around Buffalo– that’s a pretty typical Buffalo story.
Onward!
JB
PS–and, of course, we DID stop to see the new Bills stadium going up on the way home.
PPS–and for any of your poor souls who don’t know the Bill’s shout song, here it is:
https://youtu.be/1JpeDWbgUO8?si=68jID1lNtthEG_Mu
by Scott Frederick | Oct 17, 2024 | Berlin's Wall
Thanks to the Manufacturers & Business Association for this nice article. – JB
Global Logistics Leader Rallies Support in Rebuilding Ukraine
Logistics Plus Blends Business Investment with Humanitarian Support
By: Karen Torres
Click to view and read the full PDF with photographs.
Logistics Plus, Inc. (LP) is one of the fastest-growing, privately owned logistics providers in the world.
It is also a top 100 3PL company, a top freight brokerage and warehousing firm, a top technology developer, a unique solutions provider for key verticals, such as solar, data centers, and many others, and a certified Great Place to Work®.
But what truly distinguishes LP as a company to watch is its innovative solutions and extensive global network that are impacting both business investment and humanitarian support.
Over the past two and half years, LP has provided a critical lifeline to Ukraine in its rebuilding efforts as the war with Russia rages on. The company has donated and raised more than $1 million worth of relief but also has provided vital transportation and logistics support to assist with Ukraine’s infrastructure and economic stability.
LP’s support for Ukraine is driving meaningful impact on the global stage — a call to action for other businesses to continue to invest in and support the country as more safe zones are created.
“We’re trying to lead by example,” explains LP Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jim Berlin. “I call it the tip of the shovel. We’re willing to go in before others are willing to go in. If others see, maybe they’ll join in and start digging too.”
At Logistics Plus, doing the right thing goes hand in hand with doing business.
LP was an early responder to 9/11 terrorist attacks, moving 100,000 pounds of cargo from six European countries onto one of the first international charter flights booked into the United States after the attack to keep then-GE’s production lines moving without disruption. During the COVID-19 shutdown, Logistics Plus helped source, warehouse and deliver much-needed personal protection equipment (PPE) to people and businesses worldwide, leading to the creation of its Logistics Plus Medical Division.
“We’re always the Sherpas,” explains Berlin. “We’re the first ones in, helping people find a way.”
An unorthodox business leader, Berlin knows how to get things done. In 1996, the veteran truck driver founded Logistics Plus in Erie, Pennsylvania, a small port city on the Great Lakes. A then-modest startup, LP mainly provided logistics and supply chain services for GE Transportation Systems. But as Berlin found new opportunities, LP added more services — everything from logistics and transportation to warehousing, fulfillment, global logistics, business intelligence and technology.
Nearly 30 years later, Logistics Plus is still headquartered at the historic Union Station train depot in Erie, with a growing network of resources that includes over 1,000 employees at offices and warehouses in more than 50 countries and annual global sales over half a billion dollars.
“With our trademark Passion for Excellence™,” according to the company, “we put the plus in logistics by doing the big things properly plus the countless little things that ensure complete customer satisfaction and success.”
Support for Ukraine
For Logistics Plus, the Russian war in Ukraine is not just business; it’s personal. The company employs 85 people in three offices in Ukraine and approximately 30 Ukranian-born professionals at LP operations in the United States.
LP’s Chief Operations Officer Yuriy Ostapyak is proud of the company’s ongoing response to support Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Ostapyak was born and raised in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine before coming to America nearly 25 years ago as a Rotary exchange student and has worked at Logistics Plus for the past 20 years.
“We have many years of expertise and experience and knowledge of Ukrainian markets, and we started using it basically on Day One,” he says. “We’ve donated a lot of money on our own and made sure that the money that we donated or raised went exactly where it was intended.”
For example, Logistics Plus facilitated more than $1 million in donations and relief in the transportation of medical supplies, food and clothing, as well as power generators to support communities affected by conflict and displacement. LP also purchased and outfitted two custom-equipped vans as mobile trauma units for Ukrainian field medics in Bakmut, a southern border town with Russia.
LP has made significant investments in its Ukranian-based operations as well. In July 2022, LP acquired Concor-Trans, a Ukrainian-based freight forwarding and logistics company in the capital city of Kyiv and second office in Odesa. Before that, Logistics Plus already had a significant presence in Ukraine, with an office of nearly 50 people located in Ivano-Frankivsk, in the western portion of Ukraine.
“In typical LP fashion, we purchased the company basically strictly on a handshake,” explains Ostapyak. “The company didn’t have much business, but what it had was amazing people with great skill sets in terms of customs and in terms of true logistics.”
LP’s services in Ukraine have been particularly crucial in maintaining the flow of essential goods, which are vital for Ukraine’s economy and people.
Emily Grein, LP’s director of Airfreight and Ukraine Development, is intimately involved in the trade lane from the United States to Ukraine and the growth of LP’s operations there. With air space shut down for safety, her airfreight team has been responsible for maneuvering and developing a corridor with Poland and LP’s Warsaw office to expedite goods over to Ukraine. When Polish truckers put strikes on the border, it was LP’s team that navigated other options through Hungary and Romania.
“We know that the Ukrainian economy must keep moving. It can’t stop with this war,” says Grein. “They need money to go in; they need goods to go out. We’ve been helping the agricultural sector, transportation sector, and we’ve been a big advocate for the rebuilding of Ukraine.”
When Ukraine’s Black Sea ports were cut off, Logistics Plus was instrumental in helping get critical infrastructure shipments delivered. The company worked with an American oil and gas supplier Vorex, also in Erie, to manage the complex delivery of 22 thousand tons of gas pipes — the equivalent of 47 million pounds.
LP rerouted the shipment through Romania’s Constanta Port via ship, then onto dozens of barges, and lastly to end destinations across Ukraine utilizing more than 1,000 truck shipments. LP’s teams in China, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey and United States were involved.
In 2024, Logistics Plus delivered the final shipment of these materials directly to Ukraine’s Black Sea Port of Chornomorsk, southwest of Odesa. It marked the first time a non-grain, U.S.-managed ship successfully delivered and unloaded at the port since the onset of the war.
“Shortly before that and during it, Odesa was being bombed and they had bomb alerts and sirens going off, so that to me is really one of the craziest things we’ve been able to pull off there, just knowing the circumstances around it,” says Grein.
Representing the U.S. on the World Stage
The tenets of Logistics Plus are rooted in Berlin’s entrepreneurial spirit and a “do whatever it takes” to make the impossible possible.
This “can do” approach may be one of the many reasons Berlin was appointed to serve alongside two fellow U.S. representatives from Northrop Grumman and McDonald’s to help support Ukraine’s economic stability and pave the way for future reconstruction from the private sector. The Business Advisory Council consists of 18 business leaders across the G-7 nations, Ukraine and key donor states, and is led by Dr. Christian Bruch, chief executive officer of the multinational energy giant Siemens.
“McDonald’s probably does more business in one day than we do in a year, and Northrop Grumman is a world-class defense contractor. Logistics Plus almost doesn’t fit in that group, so it was a little bit humbling, but I think we’re there for a reason,” Berlin says. “They wanted some folks who were more willing to kind of push the envelope a little bit, and again, try to lead the way.”
“As my son, Derek, puts it, ‘You get the Special Forces to go in quietly to start, and then the Marines come in and then all the Armed Forces come behind them,’” adds Berlin. “I think we are kind of the ones willing to take a little more risk.”
Derek Berlin, who joined his father at the G-7 meeting in Berlin, Germany, is LP’s senior vice president of Global Government Solutions. He has been active in the LP’s Ukrainian initiative and brings more than 20 years of government relations-related experience to the company. Derek has worked for the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense, followed by a career focused on international policy and finance while working for the Council on Foreign Relations. For nearly a decade, he was with JP Morgan, helping clients understand how to best compete and navigate challenges in foreign markets.
Recently, Derek Berlin moderated a panel discussion on Risk Management at the 2024 U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum Discussion. The forum was hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the U.S. government on activating U.S. private sector support for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction.
The goal is “identifying partners that Logistics Plus can work with primarily from the private sector who are like-minded and trying to operate in these difficult-to-operate environments, such as Ukraine, and figuring out ways that we can work together to achieve business outcomes while taking into account the realities of the policy and security landscape,” he says.
Derek Berlin also recently joined his father on a trip to Ukraine. They were both impressed by the Ukrainian people and their team members who continue to persevere amid air sirens, power outages and devastating attacks, such as the bombing of the Kyiv Children’s Hospital.
“Seeing the spirit, diligence and resilience of those men and women representing Logistics Plus out there in these very challenging times is just mind blowing,” says Derek.
As Jim Berlin sees it, the Ukrainians fight against Russia is a fight for the West and future of democracy. “Ukrainians are fighting and dying and all they’re asking for is support from the rest of the world,” he says. “That’s a hell of a deal for us, I think.”
Support on the Homefront
Back in the United States, Logistics Plus is also rallying support and investment in Ukrainian rebuilding efforts with local fundraising and donations, and other initiatives. One notable program is the Ukrainian Hockey Camp and Cultural Exchange, which aims to provide youth with opportunities to engage in sports, develop teamwork skills and build a sense of community. Started in 2023, the program provides rigorous training aimed at skill enhancement and team camaraderie. In 2024, the camp hosted 20 Ukrainians, five Romanian and 15 local kids from Erie and Buffalo.
LP logistics analyst Pasha Nayda helped with the efforts. Nayda is a former Mercyhurst University hockey player whose father Anatoliy played for the junior All-Soviet Team, senior Ukraine Team and was a Team Lead of the national Ukraine Team for years. “It’s definitely very inspiring to see the kids come here and give them the opportunity to skate because of everything going on,” he says. “They absolutely enjoy being here.”
Also in 2024, Logistics Plus hosted the Whistlestops for Ukraine tour. The tour was organized by the German Marshall Fund and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to drum up support for Ukraine across rural American communities that specialize in agriculture and manufacturing.
Several high-profile CEOs and business leaders from across the country and world attended, including American businessman and philanthropist Howard Buffett.
“I’m trying to help bring those people together if they don’t know one another, and seeing what can come from that,” says Jim Berlin. “But there’s a lot of support out there, and I think we’re kind of pulling it all together and maybe amplifying it a little bit.”
LP is also supporting efforts by Diane Chido of DC Analytics for Erie to become a “Seaster” City with Chornomorsk. Erie was pivotal in the U.S. War of Independence in 1812, and Chornomorsk is playing a major role in the fight for Ukraine’s independence.
According to Jim Berlin, sister cities are a good way to connect people through schools, universities, businesses, sports teams, different levels of government, the Port of Erie, of course, cultural institutions and others. Chornomorsk cheers for Odesa’s Seasters women’s soccer team, while Erie has the Seawolves baseball team.
“It’s exciting,” he says. “We’ve talked to everyone behind the scenes, and they’re all on board.”
Looking Ahead
As Ukraine continues its journey toward economic stability and growth, the support of partners like Logistics Plus will be instrumental. The company’s commitment serves as a model for how logistics providers can contribute to global development and foster meaningful change.
Logistics Plus is poised to continue making a positive difference in Ukraine and beyond, embodying the true spirit of a 21st-century solutions provider.
“Our efforts just show that this is the ‘LP way’ and that we are not going to stand by or be the followers,” says Ostapyak. “We always try to be the market leader — jumping in and figuring things out.”
