Convoy Veteran Spotlight: Diankha Linear
Behind the Scenes • Published on November 12, 2020
![diankha-linear](https://convoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DLs-headshot-1015x1024.jpg)
At Convoy, we value the women and men who have served or are currently serving in the United States Military. We recognize and appreciate that many people in trucking, freight, and logistics are veterans and believe it is important that our employee demographics reflect that. From our early days, we have brought amazing veterans onto the Convoy Team to inspire, innovate, and lead. One such leader is Convoy’s General Counsel, Diankha Linear.
Joining Convoy in 2017, inspired by Convoy’s “Endless capacity and zero waste” mission, Diankha has been a force on the leadership team. Taking on a variety of roles in the early days of the company, Diankha has been as much a company culture leader as general counsel.
“The most valuable skill that has translated into every position I’ve had since I joined the military, however, is the importance of taking care of people,” says Diankha. “Great leaders will always take care of their people. Period. The Army motto is: ‘mission first, people always.’ To me, this means that our most effective leaders have the ability to stay laser focused on executing on an organization’s mission while at the same time never forgetting to take care of the people who are responsible for making it happen. At Convoy, I am proud to lead an extremely talented legal team that excels at both executing on the mission and taking care of people.”
Diankha began her journey as a young woman who enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve after high school. Desert Storm was in progress and she wanted to serve her country, as well as earn the means to not only attend college, but law school as well, and the armed forces could provide just that.
“I spent 16 of my most formative years in the military. What the Army did for me was to further develop my ability to be resilient, disciplined, and committed to taking care of people,” Diankha says.
“I enlisted at 18 years old and about four years later transitioned into training as an Army officer. In the first few years, I quickly strengthened my ability to be more resilient and disciplined. In the years to follow, I learned how to think more strategically, including the value of implementing phased approaches when tackling massive challenges — like building the world’s most efficient digital freight network.”
During her service, Diankha pursued undergraduate degrees in political science and military science from the University of Washington, and then a military officer’s commission, which preceded her training at the Army’s transportation and logistics school in Fort Eustis, Virginia. She ultimately graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and also served as an Army JAG lawyer. However, Diankha couldn’t have known how meaningful it would be in the long term to know the nuances of transportation and logistics until years later.
Diankha credits the extraordinary mentors who have taught and guided her along the way, with her professional accomplishments. She responds in kind, by attempting to pay it forward through outside activities that include being a Board Trustee of Rainier Scholars, one of Seattle’s most successful college prep programs for low-income students of color. She’s also served as a Board President of Habitat for Humanity Seattle/South King County, the Loren Miller Bar Association, and Lake Washington Girls Middle School.
If you are a veteran and are interested in working at Convoy, please visit https://convoy.com/careers/ to see what opportunities are currently available! From Diankha’s perspective, “veterans have navigated a variety of real world scenarios. They are expected to execute on an objective/mission quickly and do so without making excuses. ‘Make it happen,’ is what veterans have been trained to do. Making it happen supports all of Convoy’s stakeholders, including me.”
If you are a veteran-owned trucking company and would like to learn more about how you can start hauling with Convoy, or if you currently haul with Convoy and would like access to additional opportunities, please reach out to supplierdiversity@convoy.com or visit our supplier diversity page for more information.