Meet: Brandie Rader, Director of Customer Service & Logistics

Brandie is Columbia Forest Products’ Director of Customer Service & Logistics. She started at Columbia in 2004 as a Traffic Coordinator in Old Fort, but her connection to the industry started earlier. Brandie’s father owned a trucking company that delivered to Columbia, and her brother, Kevin Crisp, has worked at Columbia for 30 years.

She has held multiple positions over the past two decades at Columbia, gaining extensive experience in logistics and inside sales. Through these positions, Brandie learned a lot about the business and built customer and coworker relationships that still help her with her work today.

“Logistics always connects back to customer service. It’s all about getting a quality product to the customer on time,” she said. Brandie also credits her team’s attitude for much of Columbia’s logistics and customer service success. “Everyone on the team is willing to walk beside each other, shift and come together with support.”

Brandie reasons that she was able to make a career at Columbia because this mindset existed (and continues to exist) throughout the company. “There is a strong culture of support here, and I’ve had so many indirect mentors over the years help me get here,” she said.

Brandie wants to encourage new employees to come in with a positive attitude, get their boots on the ground and be willing to change course with the times. “I want to be an open book for the next generation. I hope to give back to them by sharing what I’ve learned over time,” she said.

Brandie specifically wants to encourage the newer generation to be able to evolve and grow over time because technology is always changing. “In logistics, I saw us move from phone calls to dispatch loads to everything being over email and from paper logbooks to electronic logging devices,” said Brandie. “In customer service, I saw us move from paper POs being faxed to emails and texts.” With this history of change and technological advancements like AI on the horizon, Brandie hopes new employees will keep their eyes on the future and be able to move with emerging trends.

Brandie has been married to her husband, Richard, for 24 years, and they have two daughters: Abbie, a 23-year-old labor and delivery nurse, and Maggie, a 20-year-old public health major at UNCW. Brandie loves traveling and spending time with her family on Lake James.

Have a CFP team member whose story needs to be told? Reach out to abagail.carte@cfpwood.com to nominate somebody!