It took Judy McReynolds two seconds to accept Chairman Robert Young III’s offer in 2009 to become the CEO of Arkansas Best in Fort Smith.
McReynolds, then 47, went home and thought, “Oh, my goodness, what did I agree to?” McReynolds didn’t exactly have second thoughts about taking the job, but she wanted to talk it over with her husband, Lance.
“I remember that night; we went to Wendy’s, and then went to the boys’ junior high band concert,” Lance McReynolds said. “Whenever Judy got a promotion, she would say, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready,’ and I would tell her, every time, ‘You’re already doing that job. You might as well accept it.’”
Sixteen years later, both Judy and Lance McReynolds will readily admit what was the absolute truth back then: There was no way Judy McReynolds was going to let someone else run one of the largest logistics companies in Arkansas.
“She is passionately protective of this company, and she’s not gonna let somebody else do it,” Lance McReynolds said.
Time has proved the wisdom of Young’s decision to promote McReynolds, who announced she will retire as CEO at the end of this year. Under McReynolds’ leadership, Arkansas Best became ArcBest, a full-service logistics company with record revenue and profits of more than $1.2 billion since 2010.
Along the way, McReynolds became one of the transportation industry’s most respected executives, serving as the chairman of the nonprofit American Transportation Research Institute for eight years and earning induction into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2023.
“Judy is an effective leader because of her confidence and her ability to understand and anticipate changes in the business environment,” said former ArcBest board member Lavon Morton, who recruited McReynolds to the company in 1997. “Once she chooses a path for the future, she confidently takes the steps necessary to achieve the goals she has set.
“In addition to being a top-level business executive, Judy is a really good person who is also really nice.”
‘An Exceptional Talent’
McReynolds, now 63, didn’t set out to become a top trucking executive but now can’t imagine being anything but.
McReynolds enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in her hometown of Norman to become a chemical engineer. But the time demands of the major proved too much for McReynolds, who was living at home and working to pay her way through school.
She loved and excelled at math, so she switched to an accounting major, graduated and took a job with a public accounting firm. She eventually wound up at Ernst & Young in Little Rock, where she worked for an accounting executive named Lavon Morton, and greatly impressed him.
When Morton moved to Arkansas Best, he made it his mission to bring McReynolds into the fold. In 1997, she joined the company as its director of corporate accounting, eventually moving up to CFO and then CEO, president and chairman of the board.
McReynolds will remain chairman after her retirement as CEO.
“I first met Judy when she was still in her 20s,” Morton said. “My first impression then and my continuing impression throughout all the years I have known her, since 1989, is how extraordinarily confident she is in every circumstance. That has never changed.
“Of course, in the business world confidence has to be supported by great work. That has always been absolutely true of Judy. I recruited her to ArcBest … because I knew her to be an exceptional talent. She has proven that in many areas over and over.”
As McReynolds established herself at ArcBest, she had two distinct advantages. One was that chairman Robert Young thought the world of her talents, and the second was her obsessive curiosity about learning everything she could about the business.
McReynolds attended every meeting she could — and Young’s support enabled her to attend many, many meetings — so she could understand why and how decisions were being made about every facet of the business. To ensure she had time during the day for meetings, she took her accounting work home at night to do after her two sons, Johnny and Brett, went to sleep.
“I wanted to be available and in the room when we had business decision meetings and operating decisions,” McReynolds said. “We were working on paths of revenue growth, those kinds of things, and I just made sure I was in the room and learned. I tried to be interested, curious, not afraid to ask questions. That’s just my mentality.”
Expansive Thinking
McReynolds took over Arkansas Best when the company and industry were struggling with the economic devastation wrought by the Great Recession.
The company had lost $127 million in fiscal 2009, but McReynolds knew that was more a result of the economic times than anything inherently wrong with the company. She also knew that times were changing in the industry and her company needed to change with them.
McReynolds plotted a course of action while steadying the company through the last spasms of the recession. The two big items on her to-do lists were unconventional: She wanted to dramatically expand what the company did for its customers, and she wanted to rebrand the company.
The first move proved incredibly successful. The company bid on and won the right to buy Panther Expedited Services of Ohio for $180 million in 2012.
The move surprised industry outsiders, and some insiders, because the company made its bones through ABF Freight, considered one of the finest less-than-truckload carriers in the nation. ABF Freight accounted for 95% of the company’s 2009 revenue; spending so much capital for a non-LTL investment didn’t seem prudent to some.
But McReynolds understood that modern customers wanted more diversified service offerings, and Panther was the start of the company’s logistics buildout. Today, transportation companies with expansive logistics offerings are the norm; McReynolds and ArcBest were early adopters.
In 2024, the company generated $4.2 billion in revenue. ABF Freight generated $2.75 billion while ArcBest’s asset-light logistics created $1.55 billion.
“We recognized that we could really come to market as that fully integrated logistics company,” McReynolds said. “We didn’t have all the steps underneath that, but we knew that’s where we wanted to go. It took us from about a $40 [billion] to $50 billion market that we had in LTL into a place where we had $400 billion of opportunity.”
The next move in coordination was renaming the company ArcBest to better express its national and international network and services. The rebrand became official in 2016.
McReynolds’ leadership has earned rave reviews from those who have interacted with her through the years.
Rebecca Brewster, COO of the American Transportation Research Institute, said McReynolds’ professional and personal conduct is something she tries to “emulate on a daily basis.” Former USA Truck CEO James Reed, who worked under McReynolds on the ATRI board, is effusive in his praise for how she managed the big egos on the 15-person board.
McReynolds’ effectiveness leads to the obvious observation that she has succeeded as a woman in what is a predominantly male-oriented business. Not only that, as her husband says, Judy McReynolds is not a commanding presence physically, standing 5-feet-3-inches and looking like the “Grammy” she is to her two grandchildren.
McReynolds understands she may be considered a role model for women but insists she never considered her gender in her professional life. She certainly never let anyone else, either.
McReynolds’ standard answer to gender issues in business is if someone doubts you because you are a woman, prove them wrong by being prepared, being curious and doing your job the best way possible.
“I can tell you for sure without a doubt, if I wore the fact that I was a woman on my sleeve, I would have had a problem — but I didn’t,” McReynolds said. “This is not an issue. I’m going to do what I need to do here.
“Oftentimes in the boardroom or something, I was the only woman leader in there, but it really never bothered me. I really didn’t give it too much thought, because I was in learning mode. I always wanted to look for what I could do that would make the company better because I love the people in this business, and I love the business.”
Lance McReynolds, who met Judy during their senior year in high school, said people have gone broke betting against his wife. The couple celebrated their 40th anniversary in October.
“If anyone showed any signs of discrimination towards her, it didn’t bother her because she had so much self-confidence that it wasn’t even a thing,” Lance McReynolds said. “She is probably the most determined person I know. She wants things done right. She usually is right.
“It’s not a smart move to underestimate her. She plans and she prepares and she outworks everyone in the room.”
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