Supply chain consulting firm Tompkins International said Tuesday it had named industry veteran Gene Tyndall to run its MonarchFx contract logistics arm.

Tyndall joins the organization as it prepares to sign up its initial clients and begin shipping its first orders by August. Tyndall served most recently as Tompkins International's executive vice president, chief solutions and business and development officer. Before that, he was president of Ryder Global Supply Chain Solutions, a unit of Miami-based Ryder System Inc., and was global leader and senior partner of the Ernst & Young Supply Chain Management Consulting Practice.

Raleigh, N.C.-based MonarchFx was founded in December by consultant James Tompkins to ride the wave of demand from online retailers for e-fulfillment services. Tompkins built an alliance of logistics services providers, supply chain technology firms, and transportation service providers. Charter members include such well-known names as third-party logistics (3PL) providers Kenco Logistics and NFI Interactive Logistics Inc. and software developer JDA Software Group Inc. Monarch plans to offer same-day, next-day, and two-day delivery service nationwide, leveraging its partners' economies of scale to compete with Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc.'s speed of delivery in retail e-commerce.

The creation of MonarchFx is notable in that it is unusual for a consultant to take such a prominent role on the practitioner's side of the business.