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The company was founded by Scott’s grandfather, Howard George, in 1948 (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)

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TCW Transportation following the retirement of President and CEO Scott George.

The employee-owned, Nashville, Tenn.-based company said Sept. 30 that Eastern Region Vice President Rob Stephenson will move into the role of CEO, while Ben Banks will move from vice president of operations to president. George will remain an adviser to the board of directors.

The company was founded by George’s grandfather, Howard George, in 1948 and has been employee-owned since 2022. When the company instituted its Employee Stock Ownership Plan, succession and retirement planning began, Banks said, shifting from casual discussions to more formalized planning. The ESOP allows employees to acquire shares through a trust fund.

“We’re excited,” Banks told Transport Topics. “It’s important news, especially to just honor the legacy of Scott George and his family, and getting us to the point we’re at today.”

He credits George with taking time over the years to educate him and Stephenson about the ins and outs of the company.

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“He’s always been very open and transparent about, ‘Here’s how this works,’��” Banks said. “There was never a thing hidden behind the veil. So that’s helped tremendously — that we’ve had so much visibility and openness to how we do things.”

He noted these discussions covered everything from shared leadership responsibilities to long-term strategic planning.

“We have quite a few retirements coming up in the next five to eight years that are key personnel,” Banks said. “We’ve really been strategizing on how that’s going to look and making sure that — not only Rob and I’s transition is successful — but making sure that we’ve got solid game plans.”

Banks believes the employee ownership model supports driver retention, safety and dependable service despite the volatile trucking market. He also believes it positions the company to effectively promote from within. To that end, Banks said TCW plans to lean on an existing management development program to cultivate new leaders.

“The ESOP was definitely a step in that direction, by setting up the plan,” he said. “We’ll have an opportunity to bring up some other folks within the company to promote them. These moves really emphasize how strategic we’ve been about the program, then also how well it’s worked for us. Just hiring folks from within that we’ve groomed, and that understand the core TCW values, and that we have been able to watch develop into leaders.”

Banks stressed that while preserving the company culture is important, growth and improvement are part of the leadership plan going forward.

“That’s a day-to-day, intentional focus,” he said. “Maintaining that culture with our teams [and] continuing to grow our relationships with customers.

“It’s been less of the transactional kind of freight; we’ve really been intentional building those relationships within the industry. And not just customers, but vendors. Just being somebody that people want to do business with.”

Banks reflected on his gratitude for George’s leadership along the way.

“We’d be fishing together, and he’d just say, ‘You guys are going to run it one day,’ ” he recalled. “In my mind, I just thought, ‘Scott is going to be around for the next 15 years.’ He’s been such an incredible boss, but also he’s like an uncle to me. I couldn’t have asked to have worked for somebody better than him.”