project44, a Chicago-based transportation technology company, has hired former President of LTL services and Senior Vice President of Operations at Coyote Logistics, Tommy Barnes as President. Barnes has played an active role on the company’s advisory board since its founding in 2014. project44 provides real-time freight management through products created for carriers, shippers and third-party logistics companies.
Previous to the appointment, Barnes was the President of Multimodal Brokerage at Con-way for four years and was responsible for managing approximately $2.4bn in freight with carriers across all transport modess. Barnes most recently led strategic procurement, directed technology investments and guided operational performance for Coyote’s LTL division.
CTO and Co-Founder of project44 Wally Ibrahim said, “Adding Tommy to the project44 executive team is a strategic move, as he’s fulfilled integral roles at leading transportation companies like Coyote and Con-Way,” adding, “Tommy brings a wealth of industry experience and extensive leadership to the table which will propel project44’s technology services throughout the industry.”
In his new role, Barnes is to be tasked with driving the future of project44’s portfolio of freight API products through relationship development with carriers, shippers and 3PLs and forging strategic partnerships with TMS and other technology platforms.
Barnes said of his appointment, “project44 is an emerging brand that is not only providing much needed state-of-the-art technology services to an outdated transportation industry, but it’s also led by a deeply knowledgeable team,” adding, “It’s extremely exciting to officially come on board with project44, as I feel this technology, paired with intelligent leadership and deep industry knowledge, is going to transform what we know about freight transportation.”
Barnes rounds out an executive team consisting of enterprise architect, Wally Ibrahim and executive strategist Chris Helton. Before co-founding project44, Ibrahim developed large-scale commerce solutions for retail distributors and manufacturers and Helton joined the team as Chief Operating Officer after a career with Accenture.
