Like many others, Romaine Seguin’s perspective shifted throughout the peak of the pandemic. As president of UPS International Freight Forwarding, she was managing tens of 1000’s of frontline workers, working to ship important provides like vaccines and private protecting tools. “All of us noticed the tales… and [I realized] that is greater than enterprise; that is greater than earnings per share. That is simply unbelievable,” she says.
Seguin wished to provide again. After spending 38 years with UPS, she joined Good360 and served as CEO from 2022 to 2024, when she determined to pursue different ventures. In 2023, because of her management, Good360 was named No. 2 on Forbes’ America’s High 100 Charities checklist.
Beginning out
When she started her first job at 23 years previous, Seguin by no means imagined she would spend almost 4 a long time with the identical firm. “I used to be an athlete in faculty, and I wished to remain in form, so I began working at UPS, unloading trailers at 3:30 within the morning,” she remembers. As soon as Seguin’s superiors realized she had a level in advertising and marketing administration, they pushed her towards a administration observe. “That’s how I bought began, and the remaining is historical past,” she says. “I began to remain in form, after which one factor led to a different.”
Seguin held 22 completely different positions all through her 38-year tenure with the corporate. In the end, she turned the president of UPS International Freight Forwarding, honing her world provide chain and logistics experience. She oversaw air, ocean and rail-freight forwarding in addition to brokerage and provider administration for 220 international locations and territories world wide. Even throughout the financial challenges of COVID-19, her work resulted in double-digit development.
A shift in perspective and function
Managing a serious, important firm throughout a fancy time made her take into consideration her subsequent chapter. Seguin, who’d sat on nonprofit boards, wished to do one thing to provide again.
That’s when she bought the decision. A few board members from Good360 contacted her about filling the function of chief government officer. Good360, primarily based in Alexandria, Virginia, is a world chief in product philanthropy and purposeful giving, serving nonprofit organizations by giving them entry to product donations that enable them to run their packages extra effectively and sustainably.
In December 2021, she retired from UPS and took on this management function—the brand new problem she was craving. She spent almost 40 years managing package deal supply. At Good360, she led a corporation that rescues and redistributes returned items that may in any other case find yourself in landfills.
Making a distinction
Most individuals don’t understand what number of client merchandise are returned yearly. In 2022, 9.5 billion kilos of returns ended up in landfills, based on Optoro, a know-how firm that helps retailers and types handle returned and extra stock. But, almost half of households within the nation can not afford fundamental necessities, like private care merchandise, cleansing merchandise, clothes and family items.
Over the previous 40 years, Good360 has labored with over 400 company companions and 100,000 nonprofit members to distribute over $18 billion value of merchandise that might have in any other case ended up in landfills, filling the hole between what is accessible and what thousands and thousands of individuals want. These merchandise come from main retail companions, together with Amazon, Disney, Macy’s and extra. To date, Good360 has positively impacted over 100 million individuals globally.
Seguin is pleased with the work she and her almost 80 colleagues have completed. “It’s all about serving the underserved communities and ensuring product will get out to somebody [who] wants a pair of sneakers or somebody [who] wants a mattress, somebody [who] wants a jacket on their shoulders at night time,” she says. Good360 helps corporations clear up a enterprise downside by getting an overabundance of merchandise into the palms of nonprofits that serve their communities, Seguin says.
Environmental advantages
These efforts have resulted in unimaginable environmental advantages as nicely. The group’s 2023 Impression Report highlights how 156 million kilos of whole weight of merchandise had been diverted from landfills through the years. “[The organization is] all about individuals and planet,” Seguin says. “[Good360 wants] to handle individuals, but in addition simply as importantly, [they] wish to handle the planet. [They] don’t need a pair of sneakers ending up in a landfill. [They] don’t need a soccer ball ending up in a landfill as a result of [they] can put it to make use of in underserved communities.”
Good360 makes a distinction within the least wasteful manner attainable. The community of warehouses is designed to put items the place they’re wanted, when they’re wanted and as regionally as attainable to reduce journey time and carbon emissions.
Seguin was particularly enthusiastic about Good360 packages in movement. Advance Auto Elements partnered with Good360 to offer extra merchandise to nonprofits that prepare mechanics. “They’ve a spot to donate their merchandise that might educate individuals,” she says. “It’s a full circle.”
This text initially appeared within the January/February 2025 concern of SUCCESS Journal.
Photograph courtesy of Good360
