Testman says faith gave him skills to achieve dreams

Michael Testman, who was named CEO of JHT Holdings, Inc. after it came out of bankruptcy Nov. 1, has a Nevada connection, his parents Coach Larry Testman and his wife, Jo. Testman said his parents, and his faith, gave him the skills to rise to the top.

"My parents were both educators, they taught me the importance of academic achievement as well as athletic," Testman said. "In anything I've done, whether it's been academic, sports or business, as far as having a mentor, he is my mentor. He may not be able to give me business advice but he's taught me how to treat people, I think one of the keys to anyone's success is how they deal with people and how you work within a team framework, which you learn with sports. The life lessons you learn with sports - how do you actually get a group of people to come together and accomplish a common goal. If you can be successful at that then you can certainly apply those same principles in life whether it's business or just about anything you do."

Testman said he wanted to be sure that his faith was featured during his interview.

"In any article about me the one thing I think I'd hate to have left out is my feeling about my faith," Testman said. "I grew up in the First Christian Church there at Washington and Austin and that's really what carried me though. It's the impact my parents had and the impact God has had on me. I feel I've been blessed my whole life and that comes from above, that's not something that I take for granted."

Testman said that his success also depended on the academic foundation he received while attending Nevada schools.

"I feel the school systems were outstanding, obviously both my parents are educators so I'm biased, but I felt like I got an excellent education. I think back on a lot of teachers that had a big impact on my life, and I think about coaches, I had a great experience athletically there, a great experience in the music programs, it was just all-around a good experience," Testman said. "Growing up it was like Beaver Cleaver, having such a nice town to live in and such great parents to be there for me."

Testman went to Missouri Southern State University where he played football for four years on a football/academic scholarship.

"While I was there I was a four year football letterman and I was a first team academic all-American two years with a 4.0 GPA," Testman said. "It was a really good choice for me. I don't think I could have played Division 1 football so for me it offered the ability to play football, to get a good education, still be close to home and it was just a great solution for me."

The company Testman has taken over has subsidiaries that provide transportation services to truck manufacturers all across the country, it's a niche market and one that JHT Holdings dominates.

"We have probably 90 to 95 percent of the market for Class 8 trucks, the big rigs you see driving over the road," Testman said. "If you see trucks piggy-backed on another truck being pulled down the road, that's us probably."

The company also hauls slightly smaller trucks as well, but that market has more competition.

"We have about 40 to 50 percent for the Class 5 through Class 7 trucks," Testman said. "If we're going to expand that's the area we have to work on."

JHT Holdings was able to come out of the bankruptcy proceedings fairly quickly and Testman attributes that to a good management team, a fundamentally strong business model and an effective reorganization plan.

"With the economic downturn we became over-leveraged and we were able to restructure to reduce our debt," Testman said. "We now have a better debt ratio and our balance sheet is much stronger."