Forty Under 40: Jennifer Heiges

Jennifer Heiges has almost had to reintroduce the watch to the world. With the advent of smartphones, watches have become more of an accessory and less of a necessity.

“We still hand make every single watch,” Heiges said. She’s worked at Timex for more than four years and is part of a three-person Wal-Mart team.

The greatest challenge in her career has been “driving sales in an industry that’s had to turn itself around,” she said. Through research, she finds out what sells and where it’s selling and brings this information to the product team. She meets with the team four times a year and reviews every style of watch the company sells.

Before Timex, she managed the intermodal business in the Chicago area for Lowell-based carrier J.B. Hunt. It’s the largest and most productive area for the company’s intermodal segment. “It’s the mecca where all trains come through,” she said. Anyone who needed a price to ship intermodal freight through the area would come to her.

The highlight of her career is the more than three years she spent as intermodal pricing manager, increasing revenue by 20% in the business there.

She started at J.B. Hunt as fleet manager in the trucking segment. She also was partnership development manager, acting as a liaison between the business segments and sales people.

In 2002, the Little Rock native graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Central Arkansas. Her husband’s job working for a general contractor brought her to Northwest Arkansas. They previously lived in Alabama and Little Rock.

She is a volunteer for the Junior League of Northwest Arkansas, the Taylor McKeen Shelton Foundation and Mamie’s Poppy Plates.

She spends her free time running and is training for her fifth marathon.