Black Professionals Building Executive Careers in the Freight Industry

In this Black History Month 2026 edition of The Journey Podcast, Will Jenkins sits down with Justin Turner — Managing Partner at Journey — for a conversation that's personal, professional, and specific. They talk about growing up in the South, what that background taught them about resilience and community, and what it's meant to build careers in executive logistics roles as Black professionals in an industry where representation at the leadership level remains a work in progress.

Will and Justin share stories from their own trajectories: the mentors who opened doors, the rooms where they were the only person who looked like them, and the ongoing work of showing up credibly in spaces that weren't designed with them in mind. They're honest about the weight of that — not as a complaint, but as a reality that shapes the way they operate and the choices they make about who to bring along with them as they build influence in freight.

The conversation covers representation in freight logistics leadership specifically: why diversity at the executive and decision-making level matters beyond optics, what changes when leadership actually reflects the range of people working in the industry, and what freight organizations can do concretely to accelerate that shift rather than gesture toward it. Will and Justin also discuss mentorship as both a personal resource and a professional responsibility — the obligation that comes with access to platform, relationships, and visibility in a space where those things are still unevenly distributed.

This episode is for freight professionals who care about building an industry that creates opportunity for everyone capable of contributing to it.

For more on Journey's team and values, visit About Us or explore Journey's freight recruiting.