Corey Hosch graduated from FGCU in December 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, but he is now logistics manager for Allyn International, a supply chain consulting firm that provides professional logistics services, customs compliance and tax management worldwide in more than 20 languages.
His career trajectory has been one of the fastest ever seen at the Fort Myers-based company, starting with his hiring in September 2017 as an entry-level logistics specialist and progressing to team leader then project manager. In his current role as logistics manager, he manages the team’s profit and loss, client relations and day-to-day logistics for new clients as well as helping them improve current processes to increase productivity.
Even now, he can hardly believe how he has transformed his life since leaving FGCU.
“I fell into it,” he says. “It wasn’t anything I ever expected to get into.
“I just feel lucky and blessed to be in the situation I’m in. A lot of opportunities have arisen just because people have left. In that, a lot of it is luck. But a lot is work ethic, trying hard, doing my best and having it show. Am I surprised? Not entirely.”
That’s because he has remembered and applied something his FGCU sales management professor, Norman Stern, told the class one day. Stern, asked for real-life business advice, said: “Get along with all departments. Go out of your way to help them because there will be a day when you need them, too.”
Allyn International Chief Operating Officer Michal Svoboda isn’t surprised. To him, Hosch has qualities that radically transcend the piece of paper on which his marketing degree is printed.
“In the current business environment, character of an individual plays a more important role in determining success as a leader than the field of study,” he says. “Corey’s situation is a perfect example. He has been gradually exposed to various company functions. Learning new tasks and gaining wider experience helped him to understand the organization holistically. Good leaders are learners.”
After leaving FGCU, Hosch was hired by Default Consulting Group and handled administrative work in the firm’s Orlando office. After two months, he moved to the firm’s Dallas office and took on an analytics position, studying for his Law School Admission Test (LSAT) on the side.
But when the firm closed its doors in May 2015, he moved back to Florida and took a sales job with Penske, ultimately progressing to sales operations and then branch rental manager before leaving for Allyn.
And now that he’s back in Fort Myers, he’s dedicating some of his time toward providing FGCU students with something he never had: supply chain expertise. Hosch is working with Elias Kirche, associate professor in the Department of Information Systems & Operation Management, as FGCU formulates a supply chain management degree program.
“It will be huge for FGCU and Lutgert College of Business as a whole,” he says of the program. “There is going to be an increased need for logistics and supply chain professionals in the next five to 10 years. We’re currently a part of a booming industry that’s noticeably becoming mainstream and offering a number of high-paying jobs. This program is going to open doors for students to get into a field they traditionally wouldn’t think of pursuing.
“Most tenured logistics professionals will tell you they fell into supply chain and logistics as a career. The supply chain degree will provide students the opportunity to seek it on their own. Supply chain is a dated industry that is slowly becoming more progressive. There is a need for new, young graduates. It’s perfect timing for this degree program to kick off.”