The WAY Team
Our senior team of executives bring over 150 years of enterprise-level leadership in the transportation field. These professionals have led projects and teams in all of our day-to-day service offerings, and have subject matter expertise in asset and light asset transportation services, fulfillment and finance.
Read more about Mardy
Mardy found his way to the transportation industry by chance. After earning his MBA from Duke University’s school of business, he was working as a financial controller. Upon realizing that his company stopped receiving discounts from UPS, he was empowered to negotiate a new deal. Before long, he was managing $7.5 million in freight spend.
Having been hooked on negotiations, Mardy entered the buy side of the logistics industry, working for a half billion-dollar distributor (the largest non-National Account at the time). It was there that he crossed paths with the current owner of Way Delivery, and the Director of Logistics; both were trying to sell him the services of the companies for which they worked at the time.
Mardy describes the time before Watkins was bought by FedEx Freight, and Yellow merged with Roadway as fun and exciting. While managing that much freight and the associated KPIs wasn’t easy, being present for the ringing of the bell at the NYSE and box seats at Wells Fargo Center smoothed out the heavy responsibility. There’s a story going around about a Hanna Montana concert as well, but the details are fuzzy.
One of the aspects of his career Mardy was most proud of involved managing through a balance sheet bankruptcy when overbuilders and a larger cable operator went out of business. Mardy was able to successfully work with his partners during a trying time and maintained 100% carrier pick up the day after declaration.
When asked what job he’d like to have if he wasn’t in transportation, Mardy answered “playing point guard for the Duke Blue Devils…but Coach K said he didn’t have a position for a slow kid that can’t shoot.”
Read more about Don
Don’s a third-generation transportation guy. Like his father and grandfather, Don’s entire career has been in transportation. He started with entry-level positions at regional carriers like Motor Freight and Express, moving up and learning constantly. At Preston Trucking, Don ascended through supervisory roles and into management and leadership. This experience opened doors to join the leadership teams of Yellow Freight and Roadrunner Transportation. Among his responsibilities at Roadrunner was strategic direction in preparing to take the company public. After successfully climbing that hill, Don moved on to be the CEO of New Penn Express.
Don’s ensured that these companies excelled after deregulation, and successfully transitioned from union-labor to non-union labor. It seemed like there were regular consolidations and mergers affecting the market that required Don’s teams adapt to remain competitive.
The factors that are commonplace in the industry now were once disruptive forces requiring keen management and strategic planning. Don has managed through the beginning of freight discounting (which was started at a mere 5%), the shift from cartons to pallets, driver shortages, the introduction of fuel surcharges, the technology revolution, and efficiency consultants. He’s seen it all.
As is the case with many of the senior leaders at WAY, what brought Don to the company was his relationship with the owner, Shawn Barto, which he says grew into a friendship that outlasted their professional overlap at both Yellow Freight and New Penn Express.
Read more about Jeff
Jeff joined WAY in 2024 after years of business dealings with key members of the WAY team at various companies across the industry. WAY’s strong reputation and dynamic leadership always impressed Jeff, and he jumped at the chance to come on board during its recent expansion. Jeff jokes that the reason why he ended up in the transportation industry was because the other job offer he received at the beginning of his career required that he shave his mustache. While the truth might be that Jeff was drawn to a fast-paced, challenging environment, the fact remains that his mustache has survived the last 40 years (coincidence?…).
In his early years in transportation, Jeff managed local and regional accounts at Preston Trucking and R+L Carriers before being promoted to National & Corporate Account Executive. Jeff quickly graduated to Sales Director, where he managed a team of over 15 account managers across seven service centers. Jeff logged years with New Penn/Yellow Freight before moving away from account management to focus on new business growth at 3pl-Aden Logistics. During this time, Jeff hired multiple Business Development Managers and Account Managers, the company almost tripled its gross revenue, and new customer acquisition was at an all-time high.
During the 2007-2008 economic downturn, his team of executives and other managers preserved all of the company’s 10,000 employees, despite daily challenges to top-line revenue. They promoted a “create your own economy” philosophy that continued to return dividends long after the economy stabilized. And the relationships Jeff made with clients during that time remain today.
Jeff is concentrating on expanding both the LTL division and Brokerage side of WAY this year, and the plan is to add carrier reps and customer service team members to support growing sales. He says that the challenges we face in transportation today are not all that different from those we’ve wrestled with for years–driver shortages, fuel costs, shortened transit times–and neither are the ways to approach the solutions. Jeff has consistently returned to prioritizing customer service, creative solutions to tough problems, and servant leadership to solve immediate concerns and build a path for long-term success through strong relationships. “Mastering communications is key to revenue growth”
When not at WAY, Jeff is spending time with his family, often outside. He enjoys working out and playing golf.
Read more about Dustin
He started his career in finance at UPS. Not happy doing the same thing year after year, he grew through various roles in the company, including Finance Supervisor, Account Executive, Area Sales Manager, and Solutions Consultant. After a time, he purchased an education organizational business and entered the world of 3PL fulfillment. Needing to address operational efficiency for his own 60,000 sq. ft. building, he began working with local businesses and other 3PL’s to turn his own facility into public warehousing with logistics service offerings.
Dustin loves customer interaction, especially collaboratively exploring new approaches to process and workflow. His finance background, paired with his 3PL expertise, gives him keen visibility into the business cycle of companies and start-ups and how various changes can affect their ability to compete in the marketplace. Dustin’s strength lies in his natural propensity to think openly and spatially, working with customers to explore their own ideas and translate them into a plan of action that fosters growth.
As the Director of Fulfillment, Dustin is currently overseeing the transition to a new WMS that will deliver better AI-enabled management and provide expanded integrations with evolving industry technologies.
When not walking the racks of the warehouse, Dustin serves his community through sports coaching (even after his kids have left the program), church and board participation, and helping mentor the next generation of youth.
Read more about Duane
Duane’s not the only member of the WAY team who grew up around the transportation industry. He worked for his uncle’s trucking company before attending college and over summer breaks, and returned after school to start his full-time career.
Starting his career as a dispatch manager, he was promoted into various other management positions across customer service and operations, where he ultimately served as Director of Operations for Landis Express for over 10 years. It was during this time where he was responsible for creating a solution to the rising fuel costs at a time before industry-standard FSC. Duane’s prior customer service experience allowed him to successfully navigate the initial customer pushback and gain buy-in and support through transparency and long-term value. He still cites fuel-related volatility as one of the most pressing concerns among his customers and is happy that WAY can provide one of the industry’s most competitive surcharge rates.
Duane is excited by the warehousing and logistics offerings of WAY, which give him opportunities to craft more integrated–and effective–solutions for his customers. This allows him to deliver ongoing value and strengthen his customer relationships. Duane says his entire career was underscored by “being kind and respectful to people and providing good service. If you do that, good things will happen.”
Talk to an Expert