TRADING PLACES

Alum Eric Joiner runs a large multinational trading company that transacts business around the world.

Every three weeks, where the vast waters of the Gulf of Mexico meet the muddy mouth of the Mississippi, a large freighter ship maneuvers into the port of New Orleans, to take on cargo of poultry, pork and beef. When the load is stowed, the ship will be carrying some 250 truckloads, or approximately 11 million pounds of product, bound for delivery in Russia. In three weeks, another ship will arrive like clockwork and repeat the process.

These shipping operations are just one component of AJC International, Inc., a global trading and distribution company that services clients on six continents. With $350 million in sales last year, AJC International is one of the largest food trading companies in the United States.

The company specializes in reducing the business risks of international trading for suppliers and customers in 105 countries around the globe. The multinational staff at AJC locates products based on the customer's specifications, makes sales in the customer's native language, gives quotes in the appropriate currency, and arranges and expedites all ocean and inland transportation as well as necessary paperwork and insurance. For exporters, the company offers the ease and familiarity of a domestic market, handling the entire process from sales through collection.

AJC President and COO Eric Joiner, BBA 1966, MBA 1969, founded the business with Jerry Allison in 1972. International trade then was not what it is today. "When we started, the U.S. was much more isolationist," Joiner said. "We were in the middle of the Vietnam War. American suppliers wondered why they should be interested in selling elsewhere when they felt they had the best market in the world at home."

As the world became more interconnected, the business grew from its original customer base in Puerto Rico, spreading to Hong Kong and Asia, to Europe and eventually to South America. Today AJC International has its corporate office in Atlanta and foreign offices in Argentina, Denmark, Holland and China. AJC maintains distribution centers in Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Walking across the trading floor of the Atlanta office, Joiner points out dozens of traders who work in some of the 23 different languages spoken at AJC. Foreign nationals from Australia to Brazil make up nearly half of the staff. Joiner recruits many employees from his alma mater as AJC interns in the areas of communications, documentation and logistics. Some stay after their internships to join the company full time.

Joiner appreciates the education he received at Georgia State. While completing his undergraduate and graduate degrees, he worked full time and started a family. "I was lucky to have a quality school to attend at night," he said.

He also was getting an on-the-job education that would prepare him to take on the complexities of a worldwide trading company. He learned the ins and outs of ocean transportation with U.S. Lines, and received an introduction to international business as part of the commercial sales force at Lockheed. At the age of 28, he launched himself as an entrepreneur and co-founder of AJC International.

Joiner enjoys sharing his business story with current RCB students, returning frequently to speak with student groups and lecture to classes. "I tell them, 'I sat in your chair. I went to school at night with kids and a job. And I made it. I am an example of how one man did it.'"

These days Joiner travels some 80 days a year, visiting customers and suppliers around the world. Meeting different people and handling uncommon situations suit Joiner's personality. "I¹m an adrenaline junkie," he said. "You have to be to like this job. We're affected by so many variables: currency fluctuations, the weather, world politics. If China gets into a fight with the United States about an airplane, or if the European Union blocks a merger of Honeywell and GE, I have to consider how it will affect trade."

Flexibility, he said, is one of his company's strongest competencies. "Each country we work with is culturally different. We have a multinational workforce that is open to those differences. I myself like the differences. I'd have a hard time just being bound to Atlanta."