1 (502) 638-8000
Headquarters: 9300 Shelbyville Rd, Ste 609 • Louisville, KY 40222
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1 (502) 638-8000
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How it Started
In 1994, Alice and Wade Houston started a transportation company in Louisville, Kentucky. The idea was simple: treat people right, deliver on your promises, and the business will follow. And that’s exactly what they did.
Over three decades, that small operation grew into a full-service logistics company. The trucks gave way to warehouses. The warehouses filled with Fortune 500 customers. And the values that started it all never changed.
Alice served as CEO from 2005 to 2020, guiding the company through its transformation into a specialized warehousing and logistics firm. Today, HJI is led by the second generation. People who grew up in this business and understand that relationships aren’t just part of the work. They are the work.
We’re not trying to be the biggest 3PL in the country. We’re trying to be the one you actually want to work with.
HJI started as a family business. It still is. Today, the second generation carries forward the values that built this company.
Explore
In 1994, Alice and Wade Houston started a transportation company in Louisville, Kentucky. The idea was simple: treat people right.
LET’S TALK
Tell us what’s keeping you up at night. A capacity crunch. Labor challenges. A supply chain that needs rethinking. We’ll listen first, then build a solution around your needs.
Founder
Alice Houston grew up in Louisville, graduated from local public schools, and earned her degree from Baldwin Wallace College in 1968. Graduate school at Vanderbilt was cut short when she married Wade Houston, and the two spent time living in Strasbourg, France, while Wade played and coached basketball overseas.
Back in Louisville, she built a 15-year career at the University of Louisville, working her way up to Associate Director of Financial Aid while earning her master’s degree in education. In 1988, she left the university to help grow a family transportation business that became the largest minority-owned transportation company in North America during the 1990s.
HJI Supply Chain Solutions came next. Founded in 1994 with Wade and their friend Charlie Johnson, the company started small and grew steadily. When Alice took over as President and CEO in 2005, she spent the next 15 years building HJI into a preferred supplier for companies like Ford, Brown-Forman, and Humana. The recognition followed: Ford’s TSMSDC Supplier of the Year Award in 2011, and back-to-back Supplier Diversity Excellence Awards from Yanfeng in 2018 and 2019.
In 2020, after completing a six-year succession plan, she handed the business to her daughter and son-in-law. That same year, the University of Louisville named her Alumna of the Year. Louisville had already honored her as Louisvillian of the Year back in 2008.
Today, she serves on multiple boards across the region, including the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Greater Louisville Foundation, and Simmons College of Kentucky. She has three children and 15 grandchildren.
Founder
Wade Houston received his Master of Education in Counseling & Personnel Services in 1973 and his Bachelor of Science in History and Health & Physical Education in 1966 from the University of Louisville. Wade also received an honorary doctorate from Spalding University in 2002.
In 1963, Houston joined the University of Louisville Men’s Basketball team, becoming one of the first three African American players to receive a scholarship. After graduation, he played and coached basketball in France, then returned to Louisville, teaching and coaching at Ahrens and Male High School. In 1975, Houston joined the Cardinals as an assistant coach under Denny Crum, becoming the first African American to serve in this role. In 1989, he joined the Tennessee Volunteers as head coach, becoming the first African American head coach of a major sport in the Southeastern Conference.
After his distinguished career in sports, Houston co-founded HJI Supply Chain Solutions, the largest minority-owned transportation company in North America. Now retired, a second generation of his family runs the company. Houston also founded the African American Business Alliance. He established the Houston-Bridgeman scholarship program with Junior Bridgeman, another University of Louisville alumnus and basketball player. Houston has served on the boards of Old National Bank, The Rawlings Group, and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
Wade’s wife, Alice, is also a College of Education & Human Development alumna and recipient of Alumna of the Year (2020) and Alumni Fellow in the College of Education & Human Development (2004). Wade and Alice live in Louisville and have three children.
