National Van Lines names new CEO
National Van Lines has promoted longtime executive Tim Helenthal to chief executive officer and chairman, succeeding retiring Chairman and CEO Maureen Beal.
The promotion is the culmination of a multiyear succession plan announced in 2013, the company said in a statement. Helenthal will oversee the Broadview-based mover and well as subsidiary National Forwarding Company, an agency that serves military personnel and their families.
Helenthal started with National Van Lines 25 years ago and was most recently the company's president and chief operating officer. Before that, he was vice president of agency services for National Forwarding, as well as manager of National Forwarding's Total Quality Assurance Program.
"Tim's quarter-century of moving-industry experience, plus his sharp insight, will elevate the National Van Lines brand in consumers' minds as we navigate an increasingly competitive environment." said Beal, whose grandfather started the company in 1929.
Helenthal said he is taking the helm at "a pivotal period in the moving-and-storage industry."
"We're confronting a nationwide driver shortage while technology is moving us toward driverless vehicles," he said. "At the same time, human capital is a tremendously important part of the business - and will remain so indefinitely.
"We're also facing challenges with corporations instituting remote-work policies that allow employees to stay put and not hire cross-country movers," he added.
In addition to his experience with National Van Lines, Helenthal was the International Association of Movers' vice chairman before his 2017 election to chairman and two subsequent reelections. He's on the board of directors for the American Moving & Storage Association and serves on that organization's government traffic committee. In the military sector, Tim serves on the newly formed Personal Property Executive Working Group created by the United States Transportation Command.
He attended Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, where he received a B.A. in economics in 1990 and an M.A. in economics in 1991.