Family Business Magazine’s NextGens to Watch Class of 2024 consists of 22 standout rising-generation members who are making a difference in their family enterprises.
JEFFREY MARX, 35
Fourth generation
Piedmont National Corporation, Atlanta, Ga.
Jeffrey Marx joined Piedmont National Corporation after graduating from college in 2011. The company, founded in 1950 by his great-grandfather as Piedmont Paper Company, is now an independent wholesale distributor of shipping supplies and equipment.
Jeffrey’s first role at the company was as a buyer in the purchasing department. He worked his way up, managing the Atlanta warehouse and then the Atlanta customer service and purchasing departments. He then served as general manager, overseeing all operations for the company, which includes 18 brick-and-mortar distribution centers. He was promoted to chief operating officer in 2024.
Jeffrey graduated with honors from the University of Georgia in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and received his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2023, earning Beta Gamma Sigma distinction. He also completed the family business “mini-MBA” program at Kennesaw State University.
“Jeffrey is a very well-respected individual at our company. He has an excellent educational background,” says his father, Gary Marx, Piedmont National’s CEO. “His dedication, integrity and leadership skills will serve him well as his career continues on an upward trajectory.”
“I have grown up involved in every aspect of our family business,” Jeffrey says. “From watching my dad come home with stacks of the old green-bar reports to review orders, to learning to take inventory in the warehouse in high school, Piedmont National has always been close to home.
“Even more so than that, in the last few years, our family has discovered an amazing cache of letters that depicts our family history dating back to my great-grandfather’s relatives, a history that goes back to the 1860s in the paper business.” Hugh Marx emigrated from Germany, where he had to leave the family’s business behind. He started out in the United States selling paper products in the South with a thick German accent.
“It was extremely interesting and inspiring to learn all he had to go through,” Jeffrey says. “He did it with the most wonderful outlook on life and was grateful at every step along the way. Even though I never met my great-grandfather, he instilled in me that attitude. He was able to be so positive while escaping extremely awful circumstances. I try to be thankful for everything that has been given to me. We owe it all to him.”