Forty Under 40: Eric Wolfe

Driven to be the best in his field, Eric Wolfe began an hourly job with J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell in 1988 and entered management training after he graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1989. He helped begin the company’s in-house logistics service in 1992 and became vice president of operations by late 1994.nWolfe, a Southwest City, Mo., native, left Hunt in 1997 to start Cardinal Logistics of Concord N.C. He maintained a home in Northwest Arkansas and developed an office in Lowell, which eventually became the biggest managed transportation office in the company. By 1999, Cardinal had $100 million in revenue, he said. nAt one time, Wolfe jet-setted from Lowell to North Carolina to a Boston headquarters every two weeks.n”It cut into Razorback football,” he said.nIn 2002, Wolfe became the company’s chief operating officer. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. of Fort Worth purchased the managed service segment and hired Wolfe as vice president of BNSF Logistics, now based in Springdale. n He recently finished an executive MBA program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. n”To sit stagnate in a dynamic industry is to get passed,” Wolfe said.