Portrait of Anthony M. Leo

Anthony M. Leo Scholarship​ for the 2024 Cold Chain Institutes

The Anthony M. Leo Scholarship, designed to support third-party cold chain logistics industry employees to attend the GCCF Cold Chain Institute for the three-year duration of the program. Through the Anthony M. Leo Scholarship, one individual will be selected in year one with RLS Logistics contributing funds to allow a second scholarship.

Before his passing in March 2021, Tony was a highly engaged member of the association serving as Treasurer of the GCCA Warehouse (formerly IARW) Board of Directors, participating on numerous committees, and presenting at events. He was a member of GCCA’s original Leadership Forum share group and always eager to share knowledge and bring challenges and solutions to the group for discussion. Tony gave his time, experience, and perspective for the betterment of his colleagues and the industry as a whole. He was also a passionate advocate for training and educating the next generation of future cold chain leaders.

Group of individuals smiling together

Submit a Nomination

Send one of your company’s up-and-coming leaders to the Cold Chain Institutes and further their education of the industry and your business by nominating them for the Anthony M. Leo Scholarship.

Make a Donation

The Anthony M. Leo Scholarship Fund was created to provide a scholarship to a third-party cold chain logistics industry employee to attend the Cold Chain Institute for each of the three years of the program. Help support the scholarship program by making a donation.

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Thank You to Our Contributors

GCCA and RLS Logistics would like to thank those individuals and companies who have pledged/donated fund to the Anthony M. Leo Scholarship:

  • Atlantic Utility Trailer Sales
  • American Halal Company
  • ColdBox Builders
  • Flexspace
  • The Fisk Family
  • Food Properties Group
  • Bryan Hedge 
  • Charles & Liliana Iannuzzi
  • Henningsen Cold Storage Family Fund
  • Henningsen Cold Storage Family Fund
  • Interchange Cold Storage
  • Interstate Warehousing
  • Tarun Lalwani
  • Lone Star Cold Storage, Inc.
  • Jeremy Lurey
  • Mattingly Cold Storage
  • Michael and Trish McClendon Foundation
  • Midwest Refrigerated
  • Minnesota Freezer Warehouse Company
  • MW Cold
  • Matthew and Jillian Ott
  • Premier Refrigerated Warehouse
  • RLS Logistics
  • San Diego Refrigerated Services
  • SnoTemp
  • United States Cold Storage, Inc.

About Cold Chain Institute

The Cold Chain Institute is a three day, industry-specific training program for professionals engaged in temperature-controlled logistics. The Cold Chain Institute attendees are tomorrow’s leaders and get to choose from more than 40 classes taught by leading experts giving them a 360-degree perspective on the cold chain logistics industry that can only be obtained at the Cold Chain Institute. There are two North American Institutes this year:

  • Cold Chain Institute East in Atlanta, GA, February 4-6, 2024
  • Cold Chain Institute West in Tempe, AZ, February 27-29, 2024

About Tony Leo

The Global Cold Chain community lost a valued and respected leader – Anthony (Tony) Michael Leo, CEO of RLS Logistics, on March 11, 2021. He was active in the business community and local charities and was serving on the Board of Directors as Treasurer for GCCA at the time of his passing.

As CEO of RLS Logistics, Warehouse Group, Tony was instrumental in helping RLS Logistics become one of the largest family-owned cold chain logistics providers in the Northeast. Devoted husband and father, Tony enjoyed bringing his family to various business events all around the world. His sense of humor and wit was enjoyed by family and friends alike. Tony was well respected by his industry peers and colleagues. He truly loved nothing more than spending time with his family and working on the growth of the family business.

Submit a Nomination

In honor of all he did for the association and the industry, the Anthony M. Leo Scholarship was created to support this new scholarship program. The scholarship will cover an individual’s registration, airfare, hotel, meals and other honors over 3 years.

Nominate one of your company’s up-and-coming leaders to attend one of the Cold Chain Institutes and further their education of the industry and your business.

They will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  1. How the Institute will affect their ability to become a future leader in the industry
  2. The individual’s attitude, leadership skills and overall dedication to the industry
  3. Their current status as a high-performing professional member of your organization

Who Should Apply?

Students from every professional area come to the Institute to enhance their individual specialty while developing a 360-degree understanding of their company and the third-party cold chain logistics industry. The program is tailored for current or potential supervisors and managers in the following areas:

  • Operations
  • Administration
  • Engineering
  • Marketing
  • IT
  • Construction
  • Sales
  • Human Resources

*Applicants must be GCCA Warehouse Members.

Nominations Open September 1, 2023

Nomination Deadline January 1, 2024

Selections will be made by January 2024

Application Review Task Force

The recipients of the 2024 Scholarship will be chosen by a group of industry executives including a representative from RLS Logistics and his Leadership Forum peers:

  • Lori Cogit, RLS Logistics
  • Andy Fisk, Vertical Cold Storage
  • Bryan Hedge, RLS Complete
  • Jason Lafferty, RLS Arcadia
  • Charlie Newell, Minnesota Freezer Warehouse Company
  • Frank Plant, San Diego Refrigerated Services
  • Mike Pokel, Midwest Refrigerated
  • Tim Siddiq, MW Cold

Make a Donation

Donate now to help fund the Anthony M. Leo Scholarship Program.