With the speed of change in our industry, it is critical that we female leaders cultivate a spirit of continuous growth to spur innovation and accelerate our careers. Spanning many different stages of career and life seasons, this powerhouse panel of female leaders shares how they have internalized self-innovation to find, own, and use their voices to propel their careers forward within an industry-disrupting, growth-focused organization. Avoiding the typical “canned” female leadership panel answers, the moderator probes panelists to engage the audience through the not-always-pretty, but always honest and genuine personal testimonies of their leadership journeys. Discussion topics will include expanding personal influence, improving professional effectiveness, setting and achieving goals, and overcoming adversity to achieve success.
Attend this session to learn how to:
Moderated by J.B. Hunt's Tami Allensworth; Panelists include Stacey Griffin, Jennifer Ford, Lindsay Goodman, Brittany Potts, Angela Forrest, and Vana Matte.
Tami Allensworth began her career with J.B. Hunt in 1987. During her 30+ years at J. B. Hunt, she has held a variety of positions in Marketing Services, Marketing & Customer Service, and Sales. In 2007, Tami became a part of J. B. Hunt’s fourth business unit, Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS), as a Director of Transportation and quickly moved into the Vice President of Transportation role. During her time in ICS, she helped lead the Talent Management Team, which focused on building out processes and programs that would help facilitate a startup workforce which now consists of over 1000 employees. Tami co-founded J. B. Hunt’s first Employee Resource Group in 2014, GROW which stands for Growing and Retaining Outstanding Women. In addition to her role as Sr Vice President of Customer Experience, she is currently serving as the President of GROW. Tami resides in Cave Springs with her husband and daughter Sydney. She loves to travel and spend time with her family.
Stacey Griffin is the Senior Vice President of Intermodal Pricing at J. B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. She began her career with J.B. Hunt in 2002, as a Pricing Manager. Stacey has also held the positions of Intermodal Market Manager, Director of Pricing, and Vice President of Intermodal Pricing. For 18 years, Stacey has been a visible leader within Intermodal and the organization. She is responsible for the growth and economics of Dry Domestic Intermodal at J.B. Hunt, a business segment with over $4 billion in annual revenue. In addition to her business leadership, Stacey serves on the board of the Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. Stacey's pre-transportation experience includes an extensive background in sales, advertising, retail management, and small business ownership. Before joining J.B. Hunt, Stacey completed her undergraduate degree in Finance, as well as an MBA at the University of Arkansas. She went on to earn a second master's degree, in Intermodal Transportation, from the University of Denver in 2011. Stacey and her husband live in Fayetteville, AR, with their daughter.
Jennifer Ford is a Vice President of Engineering & Technology at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. She graduated from Arkansas Tech University with a Bachelor's in Computer Science, and then went on to earn her master's degree in Information Systems from the University of Arkansas. In 2000 she joined J.B. Hunt as an intern in the Applications Development area and has held development, project management and leadership roles during her tenure in that organization. In 2016, she helped grow the Program Management Office with the introduction of program and organizational change management disciplines. Most recently, she serves as Relationship Leadership, supporting the Shared Services areas across the organization. Outside of work, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family, including her two daughters, sharing about technology careers with students, and serving on the NWA Regional Board for Make-a-Wish.
Lindsay Goodman joined J.B. Hunt in February of 2019 as the Vice President of Sales, supporting the south region. In addition, Lindsay is the President of PLUS(+), J.B. Hunt’s LGBTQIA employee resource group. Lindsay graduated from Northeastern State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications, with an emphasis on Public Relations. Prior to joining J.B. Hunt, Lindsay spent 11 years at Yusen Logistics, first overseeing the Dallas operation, before being promoted to Director of Enterprise Accounts, where she was responsible for leading the commercial strategy for the national account portfolio while spearheading Class 1 railroad negotiations. Her most recent role at Yusen Logistics was the Sr. Director of Strategic Engagements, where she led the commercial strategy for the global accounts operating within multiple business units. In this role, she was also responsible for the sales aspect of Yusen’s global transformation project. Lindsay is currently focusing her efforts at J.B. Hunt on growing and developing the sales organization to support their evolving business needs. One of Lindsay’s core values is to choose courage over comfort in her professional and personal life; her mission is to lead with a whole heart and an open mind.
Brittany Potts is a Sr. Manager in J.B. Hunt’s Customer Experience division. She graduated from University of Arkansas Fort Smith, with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2015. While in college, she served as an intern at ABF Logistics in Fort Smith, AR. Following graduation, she began her career with J.B. Hunt Transport as a Capacity Procurement Representative in ICS Operations, and she quickly promoted within to Senior CPR and then Logistics Manager over the course of two years. She’s spent the last two years growing in leadership roles within the Customer Experience division. She’s performed key roles in the initial rollout of Marketplace 360 and developing our Highway Customer Experience structure. One of Brittany’s core values is to influence all levels to be the change of kindness, yet fierceness that is needed to be better than yesterday. Outside of work she enjoys traveling and exploring NWA trails.
Angela Forrest graduated from California State University, Fullerton in 2012, with a Bachelor’s degree in Operations Management. Born and raised in California she welcomed the invitation from J.B. Hunt to interview for their Manager In Training program at their Lowell, AR corporate campus. After visiting the campus and meeting their leadership team, Angela knew J.B. Hunt was where she wanted to grow her career. Joining the team in August of 2012, Angela has worked in several departments within J.B. hunt; including her 3 years in Salt Lake City, UT where she assisted in starting up a their new brokerage office. Building off her diverse enterprise background in Operations, Sales, Engineering, Pricing, and Client Management, she is now a Sr. Manager of Customer Experience. Angela believes in creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to the workplace; her personal mission statement is “To encourage, engage, and equip others to believe in the possibility”.
Vana Matte, Senior Vice President of Engineering & Technology at J.B. Hunt is a global technology and digital transformation executive who leverages business-centric technology leadership to scale growth while safeguarding the business through cybersecurity expertise. Vana is a strategic, innovative leader with 20+ years of experience delivering competitive edge solutions on a global scale. Vana leads the J.B. Hunt 360 digital freight matching platform infrastructure and operations, cyber security, cloud, network, business continuity, databases, unified communications engineering, digital workplace solutions, enterprise information management, software development and IT operations (DevOps) continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), quality assurance, and performance and tuning. Vana ensures J.B. Hunt driver technologies and shipper integration technologies are running effectively. Vana was instrumental in enabling J.B. Hunt employees to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
