(Reuters) -U.S. trucking firm J.B. Hunt named company veteran Shelley Simpson as its new CEO on Thursday, succeeding John Roberts.
Simpson, who also serves as the president of the company, will assume the new role effective July 1.
In her 30 years at J.B. Hunt, Simpson held various executive positions and helped found its integrated capacity solutions business, which provides freight brokerage services. She took over as the role of the company's president in August 2022.
The company also said its current executive chairman of the board, Kirk Thompson, will retire and take on a newly formed advisory role. Roberts will take over as the executive chairman upon Thompson's retirement from the board.
J.B. Hunt missed fourth-quarter profit estimates in January, owing to weak freight demand, but reported a rise in intermodal volumes, which involves shipping goods via two or more modes of transportation.
The company continues to face margin pressure as excess capacity keeps the pricing low, it said in a post-earnings conference call. It also faces inflationary cost pressures from higher wages for its drivers and higher rates from railroads it has intermodal agreements with.
However, analysts said volume growth and ongoing contract renewals should improve pricing in the later half of 2024.