ORLANDO – American Trucking Associations named its fifth class to the LEAD ATA industry leadership program at the Management Conference & Exhibition.

The program is designed to provide LEAD ATA participants with the tools available to industry executives through ATA. Each LEAD ATA class has exclusive education opportunities available to the select group of up-and-coming trucking industry professionals, according to ATA. The program provides the class with information about how the regulatory and legislative process affects the trucking industry and the important role ATA plays in influencing those processes.

“From class to class, we are able to find young men and women who are determined to do more than just enhance their professional profiles,” said Chris Spear, ATA president and CEO. “These individuals truly want to gain a deeper understanding of how trucking can impact communities and how they can help position trucking as a safety-first industry with a strong public image.”

The 2018 LEAD ATA Class:

Arnold Heath, ABF Freight Inc.; Ben Banks, TCW Inc.; Joey Crum, Northern Industrial Training LLC; Michael Drapeau, FedEx Freight; William Hathaway, Noregon Systems Inc.; Garrett Knollman, Transmark; Joey Mills, UPS Freight; Donald Slager, Slager Trucking Company; Joseph Sponseller, Dean Foods Company; Patrick Usher, Usher Transport Inc.; Gabrielle Wadhams, Wadhams Enterprises Inc.; Dan Kling, Reddaway.

“With our fifth class of the LEAD ATA program, as with our previous classes, we set out to attract the best and brightest in trucking and provide them with the tools to direct our industry and ATA into the future,” said Kevin Burch, ATA chairmana and president of Jet Express. “The previous classes have been a tremendous success and I am excited to see the benefits that both the program and ATA will receive in the coming year.”

ATA also announced the graduation of its fourth LEAD ATA class from the past year.

2017 LEAD ATA Graduates:

Aaron Brown, NFI Industries; Daniel Horvath, TransForce Inc.; Wesley Davis, Big M Transportation Inc.; Jason Hunter, UPS; Jeffrey First, FedEx Freight; Colton Lawrence, Equinox Business Solutions LLC; Nelson Gonzalez, California Multimodal LLC; John Michell, Daseke Inc.; Johnathan Gravell, Pressure Systems International; Jake Rinehart, Celadon Group Inc.; Todd Hahn, Brown Integrated Logistics Inc.; Andrew Schilling, Fraley and Schilling Inc.; Andrew Walker, TransLand; Collins White, Alabama Motor Express Inc.; James Wright, Wright Transportation Inc.

For more information on LEAD ATA, click here.