Management Team

Thomas Schmitt is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Forward Air, Mr. Schmitt served as Management Board Member and Chief Commercial Officer for DB Schenker, a $20 Billion Global Logistics Company since 2015. From 2013 until 2015, Mr. Schmitt was President, CEO and Director of Aqua Terra, Canada’s leading provider of natural spring water. From 2010 until 2012, Mr. Schmitt served as President, CEO and Director of Purolator, Canada’s top parcel and freight transportation company. Prior to joining Purolator, Mr. Schmitt spent 12 years at FedEx in Memphis, TN where he served as CEO of FedEx Supply Chain and SVP of FedEx Solutions. Prior to his time with FedEx, Mr. Schmitt held senior roles at McKinsey & Company. Mr. Schmitt has been a member of the Xynteo Leadership Board since 2018 and a Non-Executive Director of the Ferguson plc board since 2019. Mr. Schmitt also served on the Board of Directors of private and public companies such as Dicom Transportation Group, Zooplus AG, Univar, Inc. and Cyberport GmbH. His support of non-profit organizations such as Ballet Memphis and Shelby Farms Park is equally as important to Mr. Schmitt. Mr. Schmitt holds an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School and received his Bachelor of Arts in European Business Administration from Middlesex University. Together with Arnold Perl, Mr. Schmitt wrote “Simple Solutions,” a leadership book published by Wiley & Sons.

Chris C. Ruble has served as Chief Operating Officer since June 2018.  He started his career at Forward Air as a terminal manager in Atlanta in 1996, he was promoted later that year to Regional Vice President of the West Region and re-located to Sacramento to head up the expansion of Forward Air’s presence on the West Coast.  In 2001, he was promoted to SVP-Operations, responsible for all field operations in the company.  Chris progressed to receive another promotion in 2007 to become Executive Vice-President where he gained responsibility for all company operations, and all of sales and marketing activity for the Expedited LTL division. Chris became the President of Expedited LTL in January 2016, Forward Air’s largest division, until moving into his current role as COO, where he is responsible for all operations and sales/marketing for the Expedited LTL, Pool and Premium Truckload Service divisions. Before starting his long career with Forward Air, Chris Ruble served in various management roles at Roadway Package System, Inc. from 1986 to 1995, Chris graduated from Wabash College majoring in Psychology.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Schara served as Chief Commercial Officer of Coyote Logistics Inc. (“Coyote Logistics”) since June 2019 and in other various leadership positions of increasing responsibility since he began his career at Coyote Logistics in 2010, including President, Global Sales and Executive Vice President, Strategic Accounts. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Schara served as Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Development at Hub Group, Inc. (“Hub Group”) and as Regional Sales Manager at Hub Group from 2005 to 2008. Mr. Schara held various other leadership positions at Alliance Shippers, Inc. from 2004 to 2005, The Home Depot, Inc. from 2000 to 2004 and at Exel Logistics, Inc. from 1995 to 2000. Mr. Schara holds a Master of Science Degree in intermodal transportation management from The University of Denver and a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Canisius College.

Since November 2020, Ms. Garbrick has served as the Company’s Vice President and Controller and has served as the Company’s Chief Accounting Officer since March 2021. Prior to joining the Company in November 2020, Ms. Garbrick served as the Assistant Controller at Cox Media Group from August 2020 to November 2020 and in various roles at AGCO Corporation from May 2013 to August 2020, including as Director of Corporate Accounting and Policy and Director of Corporate Financial Reporting. Ms. Garbrick holds a Master of Accounting degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Florida State University.

Michael L. Hance is the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Forward Air Corporation. Mr. Hance is a member of theCompany’s Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Forward Air’s legal affairs.  Mr. Hance joined Forward Air in 2006 as Staff Counsel and became the Company’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2008 and the Company’s Chief Legal Officer in 2014. While servicing as General Counsel, he also led the Company’s Human Resources department from 2010 to 2014.  Mr. Hance holds a Juris Doctor degree from Emory University School of Law, a Master of Divinity Degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, and a B.A. in Political Science and Religion from Carson-Newman College.  Before joining Forward Air, Mr. Hance practiced law with the law firms of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz, P.C. and with Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC.

Jay Tomasello is Chief Information Officer of Forward Air Corporation.  Jay oversees all aspects of technology including software development, architecture, infrastructure, operations technology and research and development.  Prior to joining Forward Air, Jay had a distinguished career holding various IT leadership positions at FedEx, including Director of Enterprise Customer software development, Director of Enterprise Architecture and culminating in VP and head of IT for all of the FedEx Supply Chain operating company.  Prior to FedEx, Jay held various positions related to software development including leading all software development for a big data startup.  Jay holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from University of Memphis.

Kyle R. Mitchin is the Chief People Officer of Forward Air Corporation. He is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Forward Air’s Human Resource function as well as the capacity growth and retention initiatives for our fleet of Independent Contractors. Mr. Mitchin joined Forward Air in 2014 as the Vice President of Recruiting & Retention and became the Senior Vice President of Human Resources in 2017. In 2019, Mr. Mitchin began his service as the Chief People Officer of Forward Air. Prior to joining the Company, he was the Director of Recruiting for Panther Premium Logistics. Mr. Mitchin holds an MBA and Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management, receiving Magna Cum Laude honors, from Walsh University.