Following a months-long rigorous search, the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has announced the selection of James (Jim) Ward as its new president.
Ward will succeed TCA President John Lyboldt, who plans to retire April 1, 2022.
Currently, Ward serves as TCA’s volunteer chair; his term expires in March 2022. Prior to his election as TCA’s chair, Ward was deeply engaged in many facets of TCA leadership and in several of its programs over the many years.
In response to several members’ urging him to apply for the president’s position, Ward recused himself from the search process before its outreach began in late August.
Ward serves as president and CEO of TCA member D. M. Bowman, Inc., of Williamsport, Maryland, a position from which he will soon retire. In addition to more than two decades at D. M. Bowman, Ward’s extensive transportation leadership experience includes service as managing director of Willis Towers Watson’s transportation division, where he provided risk management and safety services to multiple transportation clients.
Prior to joining Willis in 1993, Ward was a trainman and engineer for CSX and was promoted to serve as its Maryland safety manager.
Ward is a past chair and current board member of Maryland Motor Truck Association (MMTA) and a former recipient of MMTA’s Person of the Year award. He also serves as a vice president at-large of the American Trucking Associations.
“TCA is approaching 2022 in its strongest position in many years,” said TCA Search Committee Chair and First Vice Chair John Elliott, CEO of Load1, in announcing Ward’s selection to members. Elliott cited TCA’s all-time high membership as well as the expansion and success of its advocacy efforts.
“TCA is poised to strengthen current programs while we actively seek to provide our members new services and opportunities,” Elliott said. “We are excited to bring Jim’s unique skill sets and his deep love of the truckload industry to move TCA to the next level.”
Elliott announced that Ward will serve out his term as TCA chair while transitioning into and assuming the president’s role at the March 2022 TCA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.
Lyndon Finney’s publishing career spans over 55 years beginning with a reporter position with the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1965. Since then he’s been a newspaper editor at the Southwest Times Record, served five years as assistant managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock and from November 2004 through December 2019 served as editor of The Trucker. Between newspaper jobs he spent 14 years as director of communications at Baptist Health, Arkansas’ largest healthcare system. In addition to his publishing career he served for 46 years as organist at Little Rock’s largest Baptist church.
