David Congdon

Congdon took the wheel of his family trucking business in a most inauspicious year—2008—and managed to stay in the black in recession-wracked 2009. During his tenure, he has more than doubled revenues and raised profits by a factor of five. Congdon’s upgrades of the company’s IT network and infrastructure help Old Dominion vie for business with much bigger rivals like FedEx Freight and UPS Ground. A key part of the company’s appeal: Its customer-first attitude. Old Dominion boasts an on-time ratio of 99% and the lowest percentage—0.32%—of damaged cargo claims in the industry.