Jonathan Duhon and the Business of Getting There

Before a construction crew can build anything, somebody has to get it there. A site can have a budget, a schedule and a considerable quantity of enthusiasm, yet still lack a road capable of carrying the equipment. Jonathan Duhon spent a chapter of his career leading a business devoted to that first, stubborn problem. Yak Access supplied temporary roadways and the services required to put them in place. The destination mattered. So did the ground between here and there.

It is a useful starting point for Duhon, now Managing Partner at Jones Capital and Chief Executive Officer of Jones Logistics. His working history moves through accounting, operating companies, infrastructure access and portfolio support. The nouns are reassuringly physical: timber, mats, trucks, sites. Even when the conversation turns to capital, the businesses around him have things to carry and places to reach.

The road before the project

Yak Access formed in 2016, combining Dixie Mat with the matting division of Beasley Forest Products. Duhon became its CEO. The business inherited a longer Mississippi history: Brett Jones had incorporated Dixie Mat and Hardwood in 1976, following the family’s earlier lumber business. Jones’s roots reach back to Lloyd Jones’s one-site hardwood sawmill in Sandy Hook in 1949.

By the time Platinum Equity acquired a majority stake in July 2018, Yak’s work included access solutions for infrastructure projects. Mats were one part of an offering that also covered temporary-road installation and removal, permanent access roads and civil services. There is a certain elegance to a business whose product helps its customer begin. There is also rather less room for abstraction when the customer needs to move heavy machinery.

Duhon stayed CEO through that ownership transition. His announcement comments described opportunities to invest in growth and technology. Jones Companies and Beasley Forest Products retained minority stakes. A different ownership structure had arrived around an operating business; the work of serving its customers continued.

An accountant changes the scale of the question

Duhon’s formal training began with accounting at the University of Mississippi, followed by a master’s degree in taxation. His LinkedIn education dates span 2000 to 2004 and 2004 to 2005. After graduation, he joined KPMG as an Audit Associate in the greater Memphis area. His CPA certification is dated September 2006.

He later moved to the Hattiesburg area and joined Jones Companies as CFO. After six years with Jones, he became President and COO, directing operating activities. The progression carried him from financial responsibility into the broader job of running businesses, before Yak’s formation added a CEO assignment.

Recognition followed along the way: Mississippi Business Journal named him a Top 40 Under 40 leader in 2011 and a Top MS CEO in 2019. His professional affiliations include the Southern 7 chapter of YPO, the American Pipeline Contractors Association, the International Pipeline & Offshore Contractors Association and the Mississippi Society of Certified Public Accountants.

The Ohio chapter

In July 2019, Yak acquired Klein’s Restoration Services, based in Canton, Ohio. Klein’s brought restoration, matting, site development, construction and traffic-control services, primarily for the powerline industry. The acquisition expanded Yak’s Midwestern footprint and added to its service offering. Klein’s President Erik Klein joined the Yak leadership team.

That detail keeps the transaction attached to the people who would have to make it work. A purchase announcement can compress a company into a name and a location. Here, the business came with a leader and a collection of specific capabilities. Duhon described the combination in terms of customers and growth.

“…expanding our ability to serve customers and providing new avenues for growth.”

Jonathan Duhon · July 2019

Klein’s was Yak’s third add-on acquisition in recent years, following New South Access & Environmental Solutions in 2016 and BluRoc in 2017. Each addition belonged to the same practical world of site access and services. The Ohio chapter gave the expansion a map reference, rather than leaving it as a pleasantly vague ambition.

Growth meets the balance sheet

Operating history includes financing decisions as well as acquisitions. In March 2023, Yak announced a comprehensive recapitalization and exchange transaction. All lenders supported an exchange of existing loans for equity and approximately $419 million in new loans due in March 2028. Yak obtained $121 million in new investment, largely from Platinum Equity, and entered a $75 million revolving credit facility led by MidCap Financial.

Duhon, identified as CEO in the announcement, thanked the investor, lenders, vendors, customers and employees. His remarks connected the transaction’s liquidity with Yak’s ability to meet demand. The language of financing was accompanied by a roll call of the parties around the operating company.

Those figures describe Yak’s transaction. They also show the scale of the capital decisions surrounding the access business Duhon led. Even a company dealing in temporary roads needs a financing structure that can carry its plans. Timber has its load limits; a balance sheet has obligations of its own.

A toolbox with people inside it

In November 2024, Jones Capital introduced its Strategic Resource Group under Duhon’s oversight. Its remit was support for portfolio companies through strategic and operating expertise. The firm presented the group as a way to work with management teams on growth, drawing on experience beyond the provision of investment capital.

“…our commitment to being more than just a capital provider.”

Jonathan Duhon · November 2024

The initial team included Aaron Boyll, Adam Barrilleaux and Kathy Hopper. Their backgrounds covered corporate development, technology and marketing. Boyll’s experience included industrial companies and investment work. Barrilleaux brought a long technology career and had served as a consultant to Jones before joining it. Hopper had previously worked in marketing at Jones Companies and on Yak Access’s business following its private equity transaction.

The group gave names and responsibilities to a promise often expressed broadly in investment language. A portfolio business could draw on people familiar with integrations, systems and revenue-focused marketing. Duhon’s oversight brought his finance and operating career into that arrangement.

Jones’s wider toolkit describes recruiting, leadership training, strategic planning and business systems. It includes ERP, CRM and HR information systems, along with governance, performance information, pricing and sourcing. Acquisitions are another option. It is a list with remarkably little glamour and considerable relevance to the everyday job of keeping a company organised.

From access roads to freight routes

Jones Logistics lists Duhon as its Chief Executive Officer. The company provides dedicated transportation, warehousing and third-party logistics, putting another operating business alongside his Jones Capital responsibilities. Its leadership team includes Chief Operations Officer John Kacherski and Chief Financial Officer Richie Henderson.

Dedicated transportation involves providing fleet solutions for shippers. Jones describes its work in terms of network design, driver support and daily execution, including services for high-value and sensitive freight. These are activities whose usefulness is tested repeatedly, as shipments move through a customer’s supply chain.

In May 2026, the company published a Transport Topics recognition announcement quoting Duhon and crediting work across its team. The current 2026 dedicated-carrier table lists Jones Logistics with 393 power units. That is a company operating measure, tied to equipment rather than a personal accolade. It adds a concrete scale to his present CEO assignment.

The relationships that stayed

The Jones connection also has a university chapter. Jonathan Jones has described Duhon and fellow Jones Capital partner Tom Caughlin as Ole Miss alumni and Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers. An October 2024 university account described Duhon as having worked alongside Jones for 20 years.

The occasion was Jonathan and Paula Jones’s $10 million gift to the Patterson School of Accountancy. Duhon spoke about their commitment to educational opportunity and Mississippi’s future. The gift belonged to the Jones family; Duhon’s place in the account was that of a longtime colleague commenting on a shared university connection.

Jones also brought senior portfolio leaders together at its 2024 G30 summit in Houston. The programme included Topgrading interview training, investment-framework discussions and the introduction of the Strategic Resource Group. The emphasis on hiring and relationships fits the specific operating resources the firm makes available. People from different businesses had a reason to compare notes.

A destination with practical conditions

Jones Capital targets middle-market businesses across transportation and logistics, infrastructure, industrials, technology and business services. Its published considerations include $2 million to $20 million in annual EBITDA, strong management teams, dependable financial performance and opportunities for growth. Transactions can involve succession planning, partner buyouts, ownership transitions, growth capital or recapitalisations.

Those conditions give Duhon’s portfolio-support role a defined setting. The firm is looking at established businesses, with management teams and operating demands already in place. It describes a flexible approach to investment timing, allowing the needs of the business and its stakeholders to shape the framework.

Duhon remains based in Hattiesburg. His company biography lists reading, running and time with his children among his interests. Beyond the business titles, that is a modest glimpse of a life rooted in Mississippi.

The working story returns to access: a road to a site, a new service in Ohio, expertise available to a management team, a fleet serving a shipper. Duhon’s career has passed through each of those settings. The destination may change. There is always something that has to arrive first.