Jeff Fleming
Jeff Fleming was named chairman of the Arkansas Trucking Association’s 40 Under 40 Council at the organization’s annual conference Wednesday at the Little Rock Marrriott.
Fleming, 39, is a senior manager of transportation for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and had been the vice chairman. He replaces Al Heringer IV, the vice president of Star Transportation LLC of Jonesboro, who turned 40 this past year.
Fleming said he hopes his role with the council will lead to more minorities taking advantages of job opportunities in the trucking industry in Arkansas. He said he would like to have guest speakers such as Chief Marketing Officer Shelley Simpson of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, who has been an ardent supporter of programs designed to increase participation of women and minorities in the industry.
“For me to have been elected by a group of my peers and being the only African-American on the council, it shows the industry is open to have diversity representation in key leadership positions,” Fleming said. “This may be an opportunity for someone who looks like me to realize there are opportunities in the industry.”
Fleming said he hadn’t envisioned a career in the transportation industry until a Wal-Mart executive gave a speech at Alcorn State, a historically black college in Mississippi that Fleming attended. The chance meeting led to an internship and a career at Wal-Mart.
Fleming said such intentional outreach is important to increasing diversity in the industry, and he hopes other members of the Arkansas Trucking Association will have increase awareness of the possibilities of diversity through his actions with the council.
“You have to be intentional to get diversity candidates in the candidate pool,” Fleming said. “If they’re not in the pool, they have no shot.”
The ATA also re-elected Butch Rice of Stallion Transportation Group of Beebe as the chairman of the board of directors. Three new members were also named to the board: Martin Tewari of USA Truck Inc. of Van Buren replaced Tom Glaser, who stepped down as USA Truck’s CEO earlier this year; Jeff Loggins of Loggins Logistics of Jonesboro replaced Gary Salisbury of Fikes Truck Line; and Carl Boja of TravelCenters of America replaced Philip Mahoney of Great West Casualty Company.
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