Bon Voyage to Ken Armstrong

“I hear you know how to make organizations grow.” Those words spoken to a skeptical Ken Armstrong by a search consultant got Ken’s attention. Despite Ken’s lack of experience in trucking and minimal interest in heading a trade association, the Florida Trucking Association consultant Gary Suhay and almost-retired Ken Armstrong followed up with two 45-minutelong phone conversations. That was November of 2013. On Suhay’s recommendation, the search committee interviewed Ken. To this day, he’s not sure whether they convinced him he could do the job or whether he convinced them he could do the job. “Probably 250 years of accumulated trucking knowledge sat around that conference table, and zero of it was mine!” he recalls.

Ken inherited an association that needed revitalizing, rebranding, and reorganizing, but “I could tell it had good bones,” the way we describe a promising house. In this case, the “good bones” Ken focused on were good people. “I was struck by how commonsensical, patriotic, familyoriented, and non-pretentious everyone was,” remembers Ken. “I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I had the ready-fire-aim mentality. We just started doing things, visiting members, and talking to people about what a great association we had—with the faith that what we were saying and doing would bear fruit.”

More than seven years later, that faith seems like an understatement. FTA is widely considered one of the leading and most successful trucking associations in the country, and Ken is credited for much of this progress.

Many corporate CEOs are reluctant to ask others for their support. Ken is not. If he believes in a project—be it Annual Conference, or the PAC, or moving TDC to Daytona Beach—he will ask your help in making the effort a success. Between FTA and the colleges and United Ways where Ken has been a key asker, a quarter billion dollars has been given to support important causes.

He saw no reason not to ask Kevin Knight and Mike Ducker and Derek Leathers and this year Robert Sanchez to come share their ideas, thoughts, and motivations with FTA members at Annual Conference. He embraced the challenge to put together $100,000 from member companies in order to sit down for a private lunch with then-Governor Scott. In the last couple years, trucking leaders have worked with Ken to give and raise $350,000 for FTA PAC—four or five times the customary amount.

The stature of FTA has never been higher. We now have very high expectations for what our association should be and do.

“We are grateful for Ken’s leadership at FTA, as he took an organization in transition, stabilized and elevated our voice,” said Philip Fulmer, Board Chair of FTA and CEO of Carroll Fulmer Logistics Corporation. “He had exactly the right blend of head and heart to lead our Association.” Ken says he cannot point to any one thing and say that is the tiptop of his time at FTA. Certainly the extraordinary TDC is a matter of pride. The Supreme Court victory on summary judgment was a game-changer for the industry in Florida. The elevation of Annual Conference as a must-go event both for state and national leaders is fun for him to think about.

He also cannot help but crow a little bit about his successor. “Somehow I managed to hire Alix for less than she was worth. When she was getting other tempting job offers, we managed to hold on to her—through thick, thin, hurricane, and pandemic. She and I learned from and with each other. FTA is definitely in good hands.” We know what Ken Armstrong has brought to FTA. What will retirement bring to him? “I plan to go everywhere I can that I haven’t already been. So, I won’t go to London or Italy or Israel. But places like Bolivia and New Zealand and Morocco and Malaysia and Estonia are in my sights. All told, I’ll do about 30 new countries in the next couple years…while I am healthy enough to undertake that adventure.”

Ken pours his heart and soul into anything that he tackles. FTA has been the beneficiary of that energy and wisdom for nearly eight years and will explore the world with the same positive perspective. We wish him a wonderful journey.