CHICAGO, July 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSP44, the AI-native agent and API infrastructure business for logistics service providers, today named the leadership team that will run it. The roster was built deliberately; every member has either operated inside a logistics service provider, sold and supported LSP customers directly, or built the enterprise software and carrier network infrastructure LSP44 runs on.
That composition reflects what LSP44 is built to do. Shippers buy visibility into their freight. Logistics service providers need something further downstream: execution, intelligence, and automation across their own operations. LSP44 gives 3PLs, freight forwarders, and brokers, the logistics service providers who move the world's freight, AI agents and API infrastructure grounded in a decade of freight intelligence: more than 280,000 carriers, 8 billion signals, and the operational context AI needs to execute the work, apply intelligence to it, and automate it end to end. Nine of the world's ten largest logistics providers already run on it.
Jett McCandless, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
McCandless founded project44 in 2014 after owning and operating a 3PL and experiencing firsthand how outdated the industry's infrastructure was. Over the past decade he built project44 into a platform that tracks $4 trillion in annual GDP across 1.5 billion shipments and more than 280,000 carriers in 186+ countries. In addition to his role as Founder and CEO of project44, Jett now leads LSP44 as a standalone business built on that foundation.
“Over the last decade, we’ve built something most AI companies don’t have: context,” McCandless said. “Everyone has data. Only LSP44 has ten years of freight intelligence that helps AI understand what’s happening, decide what matters, and take action on your behalf. We built LSP44 to give operators leverage, so their teams can focus on the decisions that move the business forward.”
Vinay Mathur, Founding Chief Technology Officer
Mathur leads engineering, platform infrastructure, and applied AI for LSP44 and project44. He joins from Stripe, where he led product engineering for the company's revenue suite and its AI data products and pipelines. Earlier, he served as SVP and Head of Engineering at SAP Ariba and Vice President of Engineering at GEP Worldwide, and led engineering teams across Microsoft Dynamics 365. His background spans the disciplines LSP44's platform depends on: hyperscale engineering, enterprise supply chain software, and applied AI.
“project44 has solved the hardest part of the AI puzzle. It has built the data, the network, and the context that turn AI from a demo into a system supply chain leaders can run on,” Mathur said. “I joined to help scale that platform and bring its AI agents into the daily operations of every shipper and logistics provider that depends on confident, real-time decisions.”
Manny Tayas, Chief Revenue Officer
Tayas leads LSP44's go-to-market strategy and global commercial organization. He brings more than 30 years of experience scaling SaaS and supply chain technology revenue teams, most recently as Chief Sales Officer at Voxel. He previously spent five years at project44, including as SVP of North America, helping scale the business from an emerging market leader into one of the industry's fastest-growing supply chain technology companies, and earlier held sales leadership roles at Acquia and HP Software.
“LSP44’s unmatched logistics network, deep domain expertise, and trusted customer relationships create a unique foundation to help our LSP customers and prospects leverage AI and agentic workflows in a way that’s practical, scalable, and delivers measurable business outcomes,” Tayas said.
Kait Peterson, Head of Marketing
Peterson leads marketing for LSP44. She brings 15 years of marketing leadership in supply chain technology, having built and led marketing organizations at Körber Supply Chain and Blume Global, driven commercial and marketing transformation at Kaleris and Navis, and most recently served as VP of Marketing and VP of Product Marketing at Locus Robotics, where she owned global product marketing, market intelligence, analyst relations, and go-to-market strategy through a period of rapid growth. She is a recognized voice in the supply chain industry, featured in more than 30 publications and twice named a Supply & Demand Chain Executive Pro to Know.
“LSPs don’t fall behind because the market gets harder. They fall behind when their systems can’t move as fast as their customers do. That’s the problem LSP44 was built to solve,” Peterson said. “After 15 years helping operators turn complex automation into real business value, I’m joining to bring that same clarity to the brokers and 3PLs running the hardest job in logistics with tools built for someone else.”
Nick Ruggiero, Head of Product
Ruggiero leads product strategy and development for LSP44. In nearly eight years at project44, he played a central role in building Movement, project44's Decision Intelligence Platform, and most recently led product strategy for Agentic Workflow Manager, the company's automated workflow platform. His move from project44's shipper business to LSP44 reflects a conviction, formed from years of building for both sides of the relationship, that logistics service providers are uniquely positioned to benefit from the platform's capabilities.
Jeremy Estep, Head of Sales, Americas East
Estep leads LSP44's Americas East sales organization. He brings 25 years of experience in the supply chain technology space across DHL, SMC3, 10-4 Systems, IntelliTrans, and Revenova, and joins LSP44 to put that network to work for a platform he sees as having a structural edge over the field.
“There are several AI companies popping up that do not have any data to leverage except what their customers are willing to give them, resulting in a lack of context and true ROI-driven outcomes,” Estep said. “Project44 collects billions of data points every year to help customers leverage our expertise in connecting carriers, providing shipment visibility, and helping logistics providers scale while minimizing manual intervention. As a mature organization with a platform of API connections to over 200,000 multimodal carriers combined with out-of-the-box AI compliance agents, LSP44 is positioned to help companies reimagine the future of supply chain management.”
John Hartmann, Head of Sales, Americas West
Hartmann leads LSP44's Americas West sales organization. He brings 35 years of leadership experience in logistics, freight, and supply chain technology, working with the world's largest logistics service providers to help them execute, apply intelligence to, and automate their operations in an increasingly complex market. Earlier in his career, he led enterprise sales and operations at scale as VP of Sales and Operations at FLI Transportation and Logistics, VP of Sales at The Custom Companies, and Regional Sales Manager at ALC Logistics, building domestic and international sales and operations teams with deep expertise in LTL, truckload, and transportation management.
“I’m passionate about the intersection of technology and logistics and the opportunity to help enterprise customers turn supply chain performance into a competitive advantage,” Hartmann said.
Raphaël Hiff, Head of Sales, EMEA South
Based in France, Hiff leads EMEA South sales for LSP44. He brings nearly 15 years of logistics experience: almost a decade working directly in LSP operations, followed by five years at project44 as Principal Customer Success Manager, where he managed the company's largest and most complex EMEA accounts across LTL, FTL, ocean, air, and multimodal visibility programs.
“LSP44 exists because this market needs a platform built for how LSPs actually work, not a generic tool retrofitted for their needs,” Hiff said. “I’m excited to bring that operational and customer-side experience to sales, and to help logistics service providers across Southern Europe compete and grow with a platform designed for them from the ground up.”
Across the team, the common thread is vantage point. Each leader has sat inside an LSP's operation, inside its carrier network, or inside the enterprise software running global logistics, the same seats LSP44's customers sit in today. That is the premise behind the business: agents and infrastructure that execute the work, apply intelligence to it, and automate it end to end, built by people who have already lived the problem, not generalist AI teams discovering it for the first time.
About LSP44
LSP44 is the AI-native agent and API infrastructure business for logistics service providers. Built on the world's largest logistics data graph and carrier network, LSP44 gives 3PLs, freight forwarders, and brokers the AI agents, carrier infrastructure, and developer capabilities to embed intelligence directly into their own products and workflows. LSP44 is profitable and headquartered in Chicago. Learn more at LSP44.ai.
Media Contact: press@lsp44.ai
