Forty Under 40: Jennifer Ford

Jennifer Ford has worked her way through multiple positions in information technology throughout her 16-year career at J.B. Hunt Transport Services. The past three roles didn’t exist four years ago.

The Oden native moved to Northwest Arkansas to earn a master’s degree in information systems from the University of Arkansas. She wanted an internship with a technology company, and one of her teachers knew a manager at J.B. Hunt. Ford liked the company’s offer and started as a J.B. Hunt intern in May 2004. She accepted a full-time job there four months later and earned her master’s degree in May 2006.

In November, she was promoted to her current role, and over the past decade, she has worked as senior director, director and senior manager. She oversees 12 engineers and eight business analysts and is responsible for value realization and delivery of a $25 million portfolio. She ensures that strategies from engineering and technology align with the company’s business strategies.

She supports all of the company’s shared services areas, or its non-revenue generating areas, such as human resources, payroll and driver recruiting. She’s focused on increasing productivity and efficiency in these areas.

Recent projects have included an electronic bill of lading, a driver recruiting tool that matches prospective drivers with the right job, and the DRIVE application that provides drivers access to needed functionality in one place.

Ford also advocates and speaks about technology initiatives at company kickoff events and steering committee meetings with executives.

She is board secretary of Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Mid-South Region and chair of the Girls in Tech Conference. She spends her free time with her daughters’ travel sporting events and is a coach.