Daseke Appoints Rick Williams as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

ADDISON, Texas, May 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Daseke, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSKE) (“Daseke” or the “Company”), the largest flatbed and specialized transportation and logistics solutions company in North America, announced today that it has named Rick Williams as the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (“COO”). In this new executive role, Mr. Williams will be responsible for managing Daseke’s industry-leading scale in the flatbed and specialized trucking market, and further leveraging the Company’s scale into profitable earnings growth. Additionally, Mr. Williams will be responsible for overseeing ongoing business integrations and further business optimization efforts across the portfolio.

Chris Easter, Chief Executive Officer of Daseke, said, “We are excited to announce Rick Williams’ appointment to the COO role, which effectively completes Daseke’s operational and financial leadership transition that started last August. Rick has served as a diligent leader at Daseke for many years, not only as the head of Central Oregon Trucking, but also more recently as the head of our Flatbed segment. Rick’s contributions have been instrumental in helping deliver organizational change across our business over the last few quarters. We will look to leverage Rick’s expanded role as COO as we continue our operational transformation and reposition the business for long-term growth and success.”

Mr. Williams added, “I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my leadership role at Daseke as the company’s COO.  The team has made significant strides to reshape our business based on operational excellence over the last three quarters.  Our financial results are showing the impact of the actions we have collectively taken to improve our operations and further strengthen our leadership position in the specialized and flatbed transportation market. Having been with the organization since its early days, I firmly believe that we have the right collection of new leaders, the vision and the toolkit to become a best-in-class operating platform. We will remain agile in our response to industry change brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resilience of our business model will allow us to leverage our competitive position both today and when the pandemic is behind us.”

Mr. Williams brings over 34 years of direct trucking industry experience, serving as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Central Oregon Truck Company, Inc., (“COTC”), a flatbed transportation company based in Redmond, Oregon. In September 2019, Mr. Williams was named Flatbed Segment Division Head, where he was primarily responsible for overseeing and implementing best practices across the Daseke Flatbed Segment. He has over 34 years of experience in the flatbed trucking industry, starting out as a driver at the age of 20. His management expertise and focus on operational process and efficiency propelled COTC from its inception as a small freight brokerage to its current fleet of over 300 power units. COTC is recognized as one of the Top 20 “Best Fleets to Drive For®” in the U.S. for seven straight years by the Truckload Carrier’s Association (TCA®) and winning the overall award of Best Fleet to Drive For in 2018.

About Daseke, Inc.

Daseke, Inc. is the largest flatbed and specialized transportation and logistics company in North America. Daseke offers comprehensive, best-in-class services to many of the world’s most respected industrial shippers through experienced people, a fleet of more than 5,500 tractors and 12,000 flatbed and specialized trailers. For more information, please visit www.daseke.com.

Forward‐Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “continue,” “estimate,” “project,” “believe,” “plan,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “forecast,” “seek,” “target,” “predict,” and “potential,” the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Projected financial information, including our guidance outlook, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may also include statements about the Company’s goals, including its restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives; the Company’s financial strategy, liquidity and capital required for its business strategy and plans; the Company’s competition and government regulations; general economic conditions; and the Company’s future operating results.

These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that the Company anticipates. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any subsequent date, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties (many of which are beyond our control) that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, general economic and business risks, driver shortages and increases in driver compensation or owner-operator contracted rates, loss of senior management or key operating personnel, the failure of any restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives that the Company undertake to meet the expected results, our ability to realize intended benefits from its recent or future acquisitions, seasonality and the impact of weather and other catastrophic events, fluctuations in the price or availability of diesel fuel, increased prices for, or decreases in the availability of, new revenue equipment and decreases in the value of used revenue equipment, the Company’s ability to generate sufficient cash to service all of the Company’s indebtedness, restrictions in its existing and future debt agreements, increases in interest rates, changes in existing laws or regulations, including environmental and worker health safety laws and regulations and those relating to tax rates or taxes in general, the impact of governmental regulations and other governmental actions related to the Company and its operations, litigation and governmental proceedings, and insurance and claims expenses. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those expressed in forward-looking statements, please see Daseke’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov, including Daseke’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, particularly the section titled “Risk Factors”.

Investor Relations:

Alpha IR GroupJoseph Caminiti or Chris Hodges312-445-2870[email protected]

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