OTA Leadership Conference
OTA Leadership Conference: Where Key Issues Meet Real-World Insight
This high-impact event focuses on executive-level education and meaningful peer connection. Through discussion-driven sessions and applied programming, attendees will gain actionable insights on today’s most pressing challenges, emerging opportunities, and strategies to navigate risk and drive growth.
Respected voices in trucking, law, organizational development, and business strategy will share practical, experience-based guidance. Participants will also engage in facilitated roundtable discussions, network over lunch, and conclude the day with a cocktail reception designed to foster lasting professional relationships.
Please contact Bradie Berry at bradie@ohiotrucking.org or (614) 519-6462 to learn more.
Thank You to the 2026 Speakers
From Survival to Advantage: What the Most Resilient Carriers Learned During the Great Freight Depression
Chris Henry
KSM Transport Advisors
After almost four years of depressed rates, matched with sustained cost inflation, the industry is not just snapping back to business as usual. The carriers that came out stronger did not get there by accident. They made hard (and emotional) calls early, walked away from bad freight, protected core lanes even when volumes were thin, slowed growth instead of chasing it, and stayed disciplined on cash, pricing, equipment, and people when it would have been easier not to.
This keynote breaks down what those resilient carriers actually did differently and contrasts it with the behaviors that quietly destroyed value during the downturn, like pricing just to keep trucks moving, stretching networks beyond what they could support, or confusing activity with profitability. We then look ahead at what changes as the market tightens again and where executives are most likely to get caught off guard. Using FreightMarks benchmarks and FreightMath network insights, this session reframes resilience not as survival, but as the foundation for a real, lasting competitive advantage in the next cycle.
Chris Henry is president of KSM Transport Advisors, LLC (KSMTA) and KSMTA Canada. Chris has spent his entire 20+ year career serving the trucking industry, helping carriers and transportation companies identify and target areas for potential improvement in order to increase profitability. He is well-known as the co-founder and former leader of StakUp, the developer of an online motor carrier benchmarking platform which quickly became the trucking industry’s largest source of carrier financial and operational benchmark data. Chris was instrumental in establishing StakUp’s joint venture with the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) to develop their TCA Profitability Program (TPP) benchmarking tool, which compares and contrasts trucking companies’ financial and operational performance.
While with TCA, Chris served as a facilitator for several TCA Best Practice Groups and helped grow carrier participation in its TPP by 300%. When StakUp was acquired by FreightWaves in 2019, Chris became its vice president of carrier profitability. Most recently, Chris served as vice president of customer experience and recognition programs for CarriersEdge, a leading provider of online training in the North American trucking industry and creators of the Best Fleets to Drive For recognition program which is produced in partnership with TCA. During Chris’ time with CarriersEdge, this recognition program achieved record growth over successive years.
AI Trucking Defense: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Trucking Litigation
Doug Marcello
Saxton & Stump
Artificial intelligence is transforming trucking litigation, shifting cases from subjective expert testimony battles to objective, data-driven defense strategies. As plaintiff attorneys increasingly leverage AI to identify targets and build cases, carriers and their defense teams must stay ahead or risk falling behind. This session explores how AI is shaping the future of trucking defense and what strategies can help protect your company in an evolving legal landscape.
Douglas Marcello is a member of the firm’s Trucking and Commercial Transportation group, defending trucking companies in both central Pennsylvania and throughout the country. A trial counsel in 35 different states, Doug handles all aspects of the trucking industry’s legal needs, from immediately responding to accidents to working with businesses to mitigate risk and litigating cases through a jury trial. Doug also has earned a commercial driver’s license (CDL), which provides him with insight into the challenges of operating a tractor-trailer and the mechanical components of the equipment. He is the founder of the former Carlisle, Pa.-based law firm Marcello & Kivisto, a boutique firm that handled only transportation law. After the firm’s formation in 2005, it joined Saxton & Stump in August 2022. The firm worked with transportation companies in trucking defense, transportation contracts, employment law, cargo claims and CDL issues.
In addition to his legal work, Doug is a champion for the trucking industry’s safety and growth. He holds leadership roles with trade agencies dedicated to driver safety and advancing the industry. He is a longtime member of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA) and sits on the organization’s board of directors. He’s been active with various committees of the organization, and he’s also on the board of directors at the South Central Chapter of the PMTA. Doug is also a member of the American Trucking Associations, the largest industry trade association in the country, and has served on committees for the group emphasizing safety in trucking. He also lends his experience to numerous industry publications and blogs to write about the most important legal topics in the trucking industry.
A lifelong central Pennsylvania resident, he is a graduate of Dickinson School of Law and a magna cum laude graduate of Dickinson College. Before he began his law career, he was an auditor at Price Waterhouse.
Resiliency in the Midst of Uncertainty: Million-Dollar Trucking
Leadership Lessons
Jackson Kerchis
Happiness Means Business
In this session, you’ll learn about the surprising business case for happiness and resilience: how it drives retention, productivity, and performance. Then we’ll learn how to better deal with stress and change. Then you’ll get a leadership checklist to create a culture of resilience, positive emotion, and high performance in your organization through the lens of a struggling trucking company that went all in on culture change and saw a $3M operating improvement with an 80% reduction in cost of claims.
Jackson Kerchis is a former operations leader, startup executive, and Zen monk. He’s a co-founder and partner at Happiness Means Business and Warrior Leader Training Companies where he helps business and military leaders solve “people problems.”
Jackson applies happiness and human flourishing research to improve individual, team, and organizational performance. He has spoken to everyone from special forces teams and Marine Corps drill instructors to high school students, lawyers, and truckers.
Past public sector clients include Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and National Guard as well as several school districts, cities, and police departments. Past business clients include public companies like Coca-Cola, Eastman Chemical, and Vivint Home Security.
He has developed solutions to re-engage burnt out executives, drive a $3M business turnaround, and improve mental health and end strength in the armed forces.
Jackson Kerchis created the world’s first major in Happiness at the University of Alabama where he taught the school’s first ever happiness course and now offers an online course on the Science of Happiness at Work. Following this period he spent four months living as a Zen monk studying their ways of happiness and mental training.
He holds an executive coaching diploma from Emory’s Goizueta Business School and the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) designation with the International Coaching Federation. He is the author of three books: The Art of Falling Awake: Meditations on Happiness, Mindfulness, and Radical Sanity, How to Stick to Meditation: Make Your Mindfulness Practice a Lasting Habit, and the Amazon best-seller in leadership and culture — Beyond Profit & Productivity: Putting Positive Workplace Culture to Work.
Jackson is a frequent speaker at association conferences and company events. He is also one of a select few TEDx speakers with his popular talk: The How of Happiness (and Why It Matters).
Jackson is a proud dual citizen of the United States and Costa Rica. He grew up and resides in Western Pennsylvania just outside of Pittsburgh. Outside of work you’ll find him enjoying workouts, time with friends, nature, fantasy football, and avoiding learning how to play golf.
In working with Jackson Kerchis you’ll learn why happiness is serious business with actionable insights for your work and your life.
Planning Beyond Today: Wealth Transfer, Succession, and the Complexities of Business Ownership
Erika Haupt
Bricker Graydon Wyatt, LLP
Navigating the future of your trucking business requires more than day-to-day management—it requires strategic planning for ownership, succession, and wealth transfer. This session will provide executives with a high-level overview of key considerations and common challenges, helping you prepare your company and family for a smooth transition and long-term success.
Erika focuses her practice at Bricker Graydon Wyatt, LLP on wealth transfer and estate planning matters, including business succession planning and all aspects of tax and business planning for owners of closely held businesses. She also counsels clients on general corporate, tax, transactional, and financing matters, estate and trust administration, issues relating to both charitable and non-charitable tax-exempt organizations, and the drafting and negotiation of premarital agreements. In the last several years, her practice has expanded to include fiduciary litigation, representing both trustees and beneficiaries with respect to the distribution of trust assets, interpretation of trust agreements, modification of trust and trust terminations.
Her clients include individuals, closely held, emerging and family businesses, a variety of corporations and other business entities, charities, nonprofit institutions, and professional practices. Erika is active in the community, having served on a number of nonprofit boards and committees.
Table Talk: Navigating the Trucking Industry
Facilitated Discussions with Your Peers
Thomas A. Balzer, CAE
Ohio Trucking Association
Join Thomas A. Balzer, CAE, President & CEO of the Ohio Trucking Association, for a facilitated discussion with your peers on the most pressing issues facing trucking companies today. Covering a wide variety of topics, he will give you the opportunity to share insights, learn best practices, and bring practical solutions back to your company.
Thomas A. Balzer, CAE is the president & CEO of the Ohio Trucking Association a position he has held for over ten years. Tom has over 25 years of experience as an association executive. During his tenure, the Ohio Trucking Association has seen some significant changes and logged some significant legislative wins including an increase in assets, greater transparency and membership engagement, increased donations to the Political Action Committee and a heightened presence in Ohio politics.
Prior the Ohio Trucking Association Tom served as the director of administration at Midwest Motor Express, an LTL carrier with 32 terminals in 16 states, and a board member with Midnite Express, a truckload carrier that served 48 states and Canada. Tom has his CDL and drove linehaul during some of the busier times.
For over six years Tom was the executive vice president of the North Dakota Motor Carriers Association. During his tenure with the Association, membership increased, he returned the organization to profitability after over ten years of losses, and expanded its trucking education program offerings, including the nation’s only conference specifically for oilfield trucking operations.
Tom currently serves on the board of American Trucking Associations’s TruckPAC and the past chair of the Ohio Society of Association Professionals. He also served on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Household Goods Consumer Protection Working Group and serves on a variety of policy committees for the American Trucking Associations.
Tom was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota, received his M.B.A. from the University of Mary and his Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Dakota.
Connect with Industry Peers
The OTA Leadership Conference is designed to create opportunities for authentic discussion and meaningful professional connection. Facilitated roundtable sessions provide a forum for shared learning and idea exchange, while dedicated networking time—including lunch and a closing cocktail reception—allows attendees to build relationships with peers navigating similar challenges and shaping the future of the industry.