If you want to support OTA's mission of bringing a collaborative approach to surface freight transportation planning, there are a variety of ways you can get involved.
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Charles Banks, President of R. L. Banks & Associates Inc., has focused on railroad negotiations strategic planning and evaluating the economics of financing the acquisition, expansion and rehabilitation of numerous short line and regional railroads. When evaluating intermodal and intramodal transport competition and other modal choices, Mr. Banks has interviewed hundreds of the largest existing and prospective rail customers on the I&M Rail Link, Wisconsin Central Ltd., Iowa Interstate Railroad, Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad and more than a dozen other enterprises as well as many large industrial customers served by Class I railroads. On behalf of seven public sector clients including the Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside County Transportation Commissions, and the Maryland MTA, Mr. Banks has completed or is presently undertaking or directing prospective line sale tasks including evaluating alternative access arrangements, valuations and title research. In the eleven years before joining RLBA, Mr. Banks was responsible for intercity, commuter rail and joint terminal operations at the United States Railway Association and worked in the Strategic Planning and Finance Departments at Conrail, the Executive Department at SP and two other rail carriers.
Dr. Stephen Blank is Co-Chair of the North American Transportation Competitiveness Research Council and is the Director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. He recently retired as a professor of international business and management at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. Previously, he served as director of the Lubin Center for International Business Development and founded the Pan American Partnership for Business Education, an alliance of four North American business schools. Blank is currently the President of the Mid-Atlantic Committee of New York City and a member of the Executive of the North-American Committee and the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Higher Education in North America. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2002, Stephen Blank was awarded l'Ordre National du Quebec.
Jeff Broadfoot is the National Accounts Sales Manager for Thompson Industries, Inc. – Treated Wood Products. He has been with Thompson since May, 2004 and operates a district Sales Office for Thompson in Indianapolis, In. His primary responsibility is the marketing and sales of products to class one railroads throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as to regional, shortline, transit, industrial and railroad contractor customers in the northern U.S. and Canada. Prior to joining Thompson, he was a Senior Professional Sales Rep for the Forest Products Division of Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation from 1983 until they closed that Division in 2003. He is the past president of the Railway Tie Association, an organization comprised of members including sawmills, railroads, contractors, tie-treaters, and preservative manufacturers. He currently serves on the executive committee as second-vice president and will be president again in 2011. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Management from the University of Missouri at Columbia and also holds a minor in Business.
Ed Burkhardt is President of Rail World, Inc. and Rail World Holdings LLC, which hold railway investments worldwide. Mr. Burkhardt is Chairman of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway; President of The San Luis Central Railroad and serves on the Board of Directors of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. He is also Chairman of Rail Polska (Poland) and Navirail (Estonia). Prior to his creation of Rail World in 1999, Mr. Burkhardt founded and for 12 years served as Chairman, President and CEO of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation (WCTC) and also served as President of WCTC’s Canadian subsidiary, Algoma Central Railway, Inc. During his WCTC tenure, he served as Chairman & CEO of English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (UK); Chairman of Tranz Rail (New Zealand) and Australian Transport Network. Before WCTC, Mr. Burkhardt worked for the Chicago and North Western Transportation Co. for 20 years, where his roles included V.P.-Marketing and V.P.-Operations. In 1999 he was named Railroader of the Year by “Railway Age” magazine, and subsequently in December 1999 “Railway Age” named him one of 16 Railroaders of the Century. Mr. Burkhardt holds a B.S. degree with honors in Industrial Administration from Yale University and studied Rail Transportation at Yale’s Graduate School.
Dr. Beverly A. Cigler is a Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Penn State Harrisburg. She has written more than 150 articles/chapters, co-authored 9 books, and presented 190 speeches to municipal and state officials across the U.S. Bev has received numerous national, state and regional awards for her scholarship and service and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Her areas of expertise include multicommunity collaboration, intermunicipal and state-local relations, and emergency management. She serves on Boards of Directors and advisory committees for a number of research and municipal and county associations in Pennsylvania and nationally and is a research associate at the Pennsylvania legislature.
James Coston is a Chicago attorney with extensive experience in equipment leasing and lease finance, and founder in 2004 of Corridor Capital LLC. In 1969, while still in high school, he testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission to protest the Penn Central Railroad’s petition to eliminate all passenger-train service between Chicago and the East. Following his ICC testimony, and again while still in high school, Mr. Coston and two friends founded the Twentieth Century Railroad Club in order to preserve the heritage of American passenger rail service and prepare the ground for a modern, federally financed passenger-rail industry. In 1980, Mr. Coston transformed the Twentieth Century Railroad Club from a membership organization into a retail travel business specializing in group travel in privately owned luxury railroad cars hauled behind Amtrak trains, as well as entire special trains chartered from Amtrak for weekend day trips from Chicago into the rural Midwest. In 2000, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle appointed Mr. Coston to a newly formed panel, the Amtrak Reform Council, where Mr. Coston served until its statutory expiration in 2002.
Rod Diridon, the son of an immigrant Italian railroad brakeman, is the "father" of modern transit service in California's Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County). His political career began in 1972 as the youngest person ever elected to the Saratoga City Council. He recently retired because of term limits, after completing 20 years and six terms as chairperson of both the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and Transit Board. Rod is currently the executive director of the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies created by Congress in 1991, and President of the Council of University Transportation Centers.
Edwin Ellis worked his way through college as a brakeman and switchman on the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, and graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Transportation degree in 1976. He joined the management team of Chicago and North Western at a time when CNW was fighting for its survival in competition with the Rock Island and Milwaukee Road, against a backdrop of deregulation brought on by the 4R and Staggers Acts. In 1983 Mr. Ellis led the formation of a shortline group called Chicago West Pullman and was a key part of the company’s growth to eight properties in eight years, during which time he was also involved in direct management of Wisconsin and Calumet, the largest railroad in the group. In 2001, Mr. Ellis became President and Chief Executive Officer of Iowa Pacific Holdings, a shortline and regional railroad acquisition company specializing in aftermarket deals.
R. Powell Felix, President of Indiana Boxcar Corporation, is a 30 year veteran of the short line railroad industry. He has founded over a dozen new short lines, including four railroads currently owned or managed by IBC. Mr. Felix has provided Congressional testimony on short line issues and served on the Board of Directors of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. He has real world hands-on experience in all facets of short line railroading, including administration, regulatory compliance, finance and operations, where he remains a Supervising Locomotive Engineer. As a former school teacher, he is involved with training employees for the challenging future of the rail industry and he is considered an authority on railroad history in his home state of Indiana.
John Ficker is the Senior Vice President for Marketing & Sales at ShipXpress. He began his transportation career as an office manager for Penn Central Railroad and later joined the Southern Pacific Railroad in various sales positions. He spent over 17 years with Weyerhaeuser Company as Southern Transportation Manager in Hot Springs, Arkansas and later as Logistics Development Manager in Federal Way, Washington. He was responsible for contract development and regulatory and legislative issues including lobbying at both the local and national level. John worked with such organizations as CURB, ASCT and The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) to facilitate and support various transportation policy initiatives and legislation. He was the Vice-chairman of the NITL, Vice-President of the Paper and Forest Industry Transportation Committee, and a member of the Puget Sound Freight Mobility Roundtable.
Dr. Janet Fiero Janet D. Fiero, Ph.D. is a Senior Associate of AmericaSpeaks (www.americaspeaks.org). She has performed key roles in major projects, including CaliforniaSpeaks, a state-wide conversation on health care reform bringing 3500 residents together via satellite for an all day deliberation. Dr. Fiero has over thirty years experience in management and consulting in the corporate world before transitioning in 2001 to applying her group and organizational skills to the public engagement sphere as an associate with AmericaSpeaks. Janet holds a Bachelor's of Science in Biochemistry, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Organization Development and a Doctor of Philosophy in Human and Organizational Systems.
David L. Ganovski is currently working as an experienced freight transportation logistics consultant with extensive knowledge of related industries, shippers, consumers, modal operations, marketing and economics. He is currently consulting a number of government, private and public organizations. Previously he managed Sales, Marketing, Operations and Planning positions at CSX for 30 years, later working 12 complimentary years at the State of Maryland as Director of the Office of Freight Logistics; He thus offers 42 years of results-oriented management and leadership to potential clients. His diverse career path resulted in a broad, balanced and uniquely functional level of expertise transcending multiple modes of transportation, logistics, operations, freight, commuter and intercity passenger rail co-existence.
Hon. Richard A. Geist ranks as one of the most senior members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, moving to the top of the seniority list in the House Republican Caucus in this, his 16th consecutive two-year term representing the city of Altoona, Logan Township and part of Allegheny Township. In addition to his Chairmanship on the House Transportation Committee, Geist chairs the Republican Caucus’ Committee on Committees, which oversees the assignment of House members to the various standing committees of the House. Geist also serves on the House Commerce Committee and the House Rules Committee. He is a past House Republican Caucus Chairman, serving in that Caucus leadership position during the 1993-94 legislative session. Geist also is a voting member of the State Transportation Commission and he serves as the House of Representatives’ representative to the State Rail Freight Advisory Committee.
John Gohmann began his full time transportation career in 1965 as a trainman/conductor in Iowa. He earned a BA in Business from Coe College in 1969, and an MBA from Governors State University (Illinois) in 1977. Gohmann has held several management positions with various rail carriers in operations, labor relations and cost analysis, served as Carrier Member of the National Railroad Adjustment Board representing rail management in national rail labor arbitration. In various consulting and oversight roles, he played a substantial role in the formation of many shortline and regional railroads and line feasibility studes in the 1980's and 1990's, was a founder of what is now known as Chicago Rail Link and Iowa Northern Railway, and Minnesota Commercial Railway. He has authored several books and papers on the history of the Railway Labor Act, rail-labor relations, and transportation economics.
Dr. Barbara Gray is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Director, Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation, at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Gray is also a trained mediator and consults to organizations about conflict and collaboration. She has over 70 publications including three books: Collaborating: Finding common ground for multiparty problems (Jossey-Bass, 1989); international Joint Ventures: Economic and organizational perspectives (with Kalyan Chatterjee, Kluwer, 1995), and Making Sense of Intractable Environmental Conflicts: Concepts and cases (with Roy Lewicki & Michael Elliott, Island Press, 2003).
Dr. Gene Griffin has over 30 years of experience in transportation and logistics, and has conducted research in economics, management, business logistics and public policy related to rail and motor transport, low-volume roads, economic development, rural transit, and agricultural transportation. He has served as director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute since 1980 and is ultimately responsible for the Institute's nine research and outreach programs as well as the graduate and undergraduate education programs. During his tenure as director, the UGPTI gained national stature in its focus area of small urban and rural transportation and logistics. Gene continues his involvement in research and has published numerous reports and journal articles.
Cheryl Hicks is the Legislative Director of the Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Committee of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and serves as Senator J. Barry Stout’s Alternate on the State Transportation Commission, the Rail Freight Advisory Committee, the Aviation Advisory Committee, and the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. She has worked for Senator Stout since 1979. From 1973-1978, she worked in the House of Representatives, first as a Page and then in the House Majority Caucus Chairman's Office. On a daily basis she deals with various aspects of the Vehicle Code, multimodal transportation legislation, and policy. Ms. Hicks holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Ken Kertesz has been a full-time Locomotive Engineer in freight service and an active Union Officer in the BLET since 1974. He currently serves as State Legislative Chairman for Pennsylvania, BLET-Teamsters Rail Conference. He also serves as Vice President of the PA AFL-CIO Executive Council, now in his 3rd term.
Dr. Maury Klein, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island, is one of America’s foremost railroad historians. He is author of thirteen books, including Union Pacific: Volume I, 1862-1893, published by the University of Minnesota Press, and Unfinished Business: the Railroad in American Life, published by the University Press of New England. His books The Life and Legend of E.H. Harriman, The Flowering of the Third America: The Making of an Organizational Society, and The Life and Legend of Jay Gould were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Ron Lindsey has 34 years in the rail industry, of which 14 years were in rail management including Chief Engineer Communications at Conrail, and Director Advanced Train Control at CSX. He has worked for 19 years as an independent consultant with a focus on the strategic deployment of technologies, performing market studies and providing strategic planning for railroads and suppliers alike. He is in his 13th year of publishing a quarterly journal, Full Spectrum, which is subscribed to by the FRA, Class Is and major suppliers. In 2008 he performed a strategic wireless study across the industry, sponsored by the FRA. He has been published in Progressive Railroading, Vehicular Technology, the Journal of Transportation, as well as currently being a Contributing Editor for Railway Age.
Leo Penne is Program Director for Intermodal and Industry Activities with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). He is responsible for issues involving freight transportation by all modes--rail, truck, aviation, ports and waterways—and for liaison with industries having significant interests in freight movement and transportation infrastructure. He shares the responsibility for developing and communicating the case for the economic benefits of transportation and for demonstrating the linkage between transportation and economic development. Penne holds degrees in political science from Seattle University and the University of Washington and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Theodore Prince - Principal, T. Prince & Associates LLC
Thomas P. Schmidt is the Chairman of Burr Oak Associates, Inc. He has previously served as Vice President of Engineering at CSX. He has also served as AVP of Transportation for Amtrak and as a railroad engineering consultant. His experience totals 40 years in the railroad industry in engineering, operating, executive and consulting positions.
Peter Schwartzman is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at Knox College. He is a trained climatologist with interests in a wide variety of environmental areas. He has written over 100 hundred articles for local media as well as peer-reviewed journals. He is also cofounder of The Center (www.thecenteringalesburg.org), a community place for learning and connecting. Peter and his wife serve as coaches for the Silas Willard Geography Bowl team and also run the school Scrabble Club there. Peter is also: a tournament level Scrabble player; basketballasaurus (a creature constantly found dribbling and shooting); an activist for peace and justice; and, a fun-loving spirit. Peter's academic degrees include a Bachelor of Science in physics at Harvey Mudd College, a Masters of Science in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Joseph Schwieterman is the director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development and professor of public services management at DePaul University. He has published extensively on air, rail, and urban-planning issues and is a long-standing contributor to the Transportation Research Board. He holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in transportation from Northwestern University. His article, “Abandoned Corridors,” was a finalist for the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s 2003 David P. Morgan Award for excellence in railroad history.
