In this ongoing Employee Spotlight blog series, you’re getting to know the hard-working folks here at Trucker Tools, including members of our engineering, sales, marketing and executive teams. This newest Employee Spotlight blog is dedicated to Virginia native Max Leach, Trucker Tools’ Partnerships Manager. Max joined the Trucker Tools team in 2019 and today oversees Trucker Tools’ software integration partnerships. Outside of work, Max is dad to an eight-year old son. He enjoys building arcade cabinets and playing competitive games. Max also hopes to get better at skateboarding.
Introducing Max Leach, Trucker Tools’ Partnerships Manager.
Name: Max Leach
Title: Partnerships Manager
Hometown: Herndon, Va.
First Concert: Van Halen, 2004, Verizon Center Washington DC
Favorite Movie: Goldeneye
Favorite Game/Board Game/Sport: Marvel vs Capcom 2, Mancala, Soccer
Favorite Novel: Thrawn
Go-To Vacation Spot: Los Angeles, Palm Springs
What Max Does at Trucker Tools
“For the past year, I have been managing our partnerships,” Max said. “We have a lot of third parties that are interested in partnering with Trucker Tools for a variety of reasons. Lately, we’ve been focusing on load syndication partners as well as new TMS partners. We drive our data connection with our paid users through our TMS partnerships. They bring a TMS platform to the table and it’s my job to make sure that the TMS is correctly integrated with Trucker Tools so that the broker customer can perform operations on their TMS without having to bring their operation users onto Trucker Tools, which can be a big change in workflow. A good portion of my efforts are aimed at keeping broker dispatchers within their dedicated TMS environment. We provide our toolset on top of what the broker already has, and thereby do not require them to make any substantial changes to their day to day workflow.”
B.T.T. (Before Trucker Tools)
“My degree is in computer game design from George Mason University,” Max shared. “I emerged from that program interested to find a job in that field and found it challenging to do so in the Northern Virginia area. So I went to work for another technology company instead. The company made surveillance systems and I was hired as an in-house graphics designer and as a tech scribe to write brochures and tech specs for their catalogs. After that, I found myself working as an administrator of sorts for Aldi and then for a bespoke clothier in the D.C. area.”
What Max Enjoys About Working at Trucker Tools
“My favorite aspect of it is the fact that we are in such a unique space within the freight industry,” said Max. “There’s been very high demand for visibility services and now it’s pretty much expected by just about any broker moving freight in the spot market. This gives Trucker Tools a unique edge to be a very strong player in that space and to maintain a reliable solution that works with TMS systems. I think that we’re very well positioned to succeed. I also love the work-life balance that we enjoy. I would say that the work life balance, the leadership and the special positioning we have in the market make Trucker Tools a great place to work.”
Max’s Life Outside of Work
“I really love competitive fighting games,” Max shared. “I have been a tournament player in some of these and I’ve also been a livestream commentator for those events. I enjoy being a part of the fighting game community (FGC). I’m also a first degree black belt in Taekwondo and I instruct kids usually between the ages of six to 15. I’ve been teaching since the start of the pandemic and I’ve been a student for over 10 years.”
Bucket List Travel
“Right before my son was born, I had the opportunity to go to Germany for a work conference and it was really neat,” Max said. “Returning to Germany is on my bucket list because I enjoyed the culture there very much. It’s different in the sense that on the weekends around the holiday season, the guys over there will be drinking wine and eating bratwurst with their friends before noon and singing songs and stuff. I thought that was really neat and a change for the choice of activities available in most American communities. I know I would enjoy doing that again.”
Read our previous spotlight feature, “Employee Spotlight: Trucker Tools’ Mid-Market Sales Manager, Chuck Tantillo.”
