Inductee

Alice Houston

President & CEO HJI Supply Chain Solutions

Alice K. Houston was educated in the Louisville, Kentucky public schools and received her high school diploma in 1964. She graduated “Cum Laude” from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio in 1968; and received a Danforth Foundation Fellowship in Latin American History to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University. She attended Vanderbilt from 1968-69. She left Vanderbilt in 1969 to marry Wade Houston who was pursuing a career in professional sports. The two traveled and lived in France where her husband, Wade, played and coached basketball in Strasbourg, France. Upon returning to the United States, Alice began a long and successful association and career at the University of Louisville. While earning an M.Ed. in College Student Personnel Services, she served as Assistant and subsequently Associate Director of Financial Aid at the University of Louisville. She left the University of Louisville in March 1988 to join a series of family businesses which collectively became one of the largest minority-owned company in the United States, and the largest minority-owned transportation company in North America during the 1990’s. In July 2001, Alice divested of her interests to concentrate her attention to developing HJI Supply Chain Solutions and became President and CEO in January 2005. During the ensuing years, HJI became a preferred supplier of material fulfillment, sequencing, assembling, and logistic services. In 2011 HJI was nominated by Ford Motor Company and subsequently won the TSMSDC “Supplier of the Year Award” and was honored in 2018 and 2019 by Yangfeng Global Automotive Interiors with their Supplier Diversity Excellence Award. In August 2020, Alice resigned as CEO, successfully completing a six-year succession plan aimed at transitioning ownership to the 2nd generation.

Back to Inductees