J.B. Hunt Transport Services made several changes to the executive leadership of its subsidiary, J.B. Hunt Transport. The changes are as follows:

• John Kuhlow was named executive vice president and CFO.
• Nick Hobbs was named chief operating officer, but he also will continue his duties as president of contract services (dedicated contract services and final mile services).
• Shelley Simpson was named executive vice president of people and human resources and will add responsibility in international services and corporate marketing, but she also will continue her duties as chief commercial officer.
• Craig Harper was appointed to the newly created executive vice president role of chief sustainability officer.
• Brad Hicks was named president of highway services, which consists of CS and truckload segments.

“First of all, I want to thank John Kuhlow for his patient and competent service as our interim CFO during the past several months. As the pandemic presented itself, we were faced with challenges in performing an appropriate external search to facilitate an effective and thorough process. John’s reliability has allowed us the time to arrive at a complete and fully vetted decision for this important position. We are very pleased to announce John’s appointment as our next CFO and have great confidence in our path forward,” John N. Roberts, president and CEO of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, said. “During the past eight months, we have not only been dealing with our response to the challenges presented by COVID-19; we have also been moving forward with important leadership decisions. These changes best address the opportunities we see in many areas of the company and we believe set us up to head into 2021 and the future with the right people focused on the right things.”

Kuhlow has served as interim CFO since March 1, 2020, following the retirement of David Mee. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of finance, controller and chief accounting officer and joined the company in 2006 as assistant controller.

In this expanded role, Hobbs will add responsibility for maintenance and equipment purchasing teams. He also will have increased oversight for asset operations across all divisions of the company. The J.B. Hunt 360° platform is expected to be a key component under Hobbs’ leadership.

Simpson will pick up responsibility for international services, corporate marketing and will add to her title the newly created role of executive vice president of people and human resources. Mark Greenway, senior vice president of human resources, and his team will now report to Simpson.

As supply chain integration requirements for shippers evolve, an even more comprehensive logistics approach under Simpson’s leadership is important to the company’s strategic future. J.B. Hunt 360° is expected to continue to play a role in improving the value the company presents to its customers and carriers across all services. All segments will continue to work with Simpson’s enterprise sales and marketing teams on customer development and economic strategies, particularly in integrated capacity solutions, truckload and intermodal as she maintains her accountability for the P&L performance in the growth and margin of these segments.

Harper will lead the company’s focus on sustainability initiatives, including improvements in environmental actions. This will include overseeing new developments in equipment technologies such as electric vehicles and autonomous driving, among other emerging concepts. He will continue to lead driver hiring, orientation and safety programs as well as fuel purchasing for the company.

Hicks has 24 years of experience with the company, primarily in the DCS segment, and most recently served as executive vice president of DCS. This new alignment will bring together Hicks and Eric McGee, executive vice president of highway services, to further expand offerings in this part of the company.

These newly appointed positions will be effective Dec. 1 and will report directly to Roberts.