Mark Harrell

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Trident Transport

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Mark Harrell is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Trident Transport, a Chattanooga-based freight brokerage and logistics company that handles freight around the clock, every day of the year. He founded the business in November 2013 with his brother-in-law, Heath Haley, who is its CEO. Neither came from the freight world in the conventional sense, and Trident started with no outside money, in an apartment, netting $50 on its first load. It has since grown into a company with offices in Chattanooga, St. Petersburg, Maple Grove and Charleston, and a run of five consecutive Inc. 5000 listings. Before Trident, Harrell spent five years as a professional golfer.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Trident Transport with Heath Haley in November 2013; the brokerage began operating on 3 March 2014.
• Chief Operating Officer of Trident, having been its VP of Operations in 2018.
• Named to the Chattanooga Times Free Press 20 Under 40 in 2021.
• Part of the leadership that took Trident onto the Inc. 5000 for a fifth straight year in 2022, ranked No. 954 with three-year revenue growth of 677%.
• Played golf professionally for five years before starting Trident.

Professional Journey

Harrell’s route into logistics ran through professional sport. According to his Trident biography, he spent five years as a professional golfer before starting the company; the same biography describes him as the owner of multiple businesses.

Trident was founded in November 2013 and moved its first load on 3 March 2014, when the brokerage was run from an apartment. Chattanooga sits in what the trade press calls Freight Alley, home to carriers and brokers such as Covenant, US Xpress and the former Access America Transport. Harrell told FreightWaves in 2018 that although brokerages look easy to start, winning the trust of carriers with a brand-new operating authority is not: truckers would ask how long they had been in business, hear “four days”, and hang up. Without outside money behind them, the founders built the business conservatively, at times paying carriers before pickup to establish trust. By 2018 Trident was, by its own account, on track for $32 million in revenue after doubling every year, and Harrell was its VP of Operations.

He is now Chief Operating Officer, working alongside CEO Heath Haley, CFO Tim Webb and Chief Business Officer Grayson Garrett. Trident has opened further branches in St. Petersburg, Florida, Maple Grove, Minnesota, and Charleston, and by 2022 had been named a Best Place to Work and a Best Logistics Company in Chattanooga and won the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year award. Marking the company’s fifth consecutive Inc. 5000 listing that year, Harrell noted that fewer than 5% of companies make the list five or more years in a row.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or primary source.