People - Brief Article

Railway Age, Nov, 2000

AMTRAK--Lee H. Sargrad named president of the newly-consolidated Mail and Express unit. Ed Ellis appointed vice president-sales and marketing for Mail and Express, a new position.

CANADIAN NATIONAL--Claude Mongeau named executive vice president and chief financial officer. James M. Foote becomes executive vice president-sales and marketing.

NEW YORK REGIONAL RAIL CORP.--Ronald W. Bridges appointed president.

NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP.--A.D. (Pete) Carrell, chairman, president, and CEO of Georgia-Pacific Corp., has been elected a director.

RAILAMERICA--M. Scott Linn named vice president-engineering, North American Rail Group, a new position.

SUPPLIERS

A&K Railroad Materials, Inc., named Octavia Urtaza manager-international sales, Houston.

ABC-NACO, Inc., elected Joseph A. Seher chairman of the board, succeeding Donald W. Grinter, retired. Seher will continue as CEO.

Andrew Corp. named Guy M. Campbell CEO.

Bechtel Civil appointed James Talley vice president for surface transportation project development, San Francisco.

CATTRON [R] named Scott Lowdermilk sales manager.

CIT Capital Finance named Robert Sech director-engineering and quality assurance, Rail Resource Division, Chicago.

The Greenbrier Companies announced the retirement of William R. Galbraith, senior consultant-marine and rail.

OMNI Products, Inc., named David Anderson chief financial officer, Portland, Ore.

Optram, Inc., appointed Fred Prahl vice president-sales and marketing.

Transentric appointed Kenneth B. Olsen assistant vice president-marketing and Fred M. Domke technology consultant.

Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., named John F. Flaherty senior rail operations specialist; John Weston, senior transportation planner; and Kristine A. Wickham, P.E., senior project manager, all in the Transit & Rail Group, Boston.

TRANSIT

Metropolitan Transportation Commission (California) announced that Lawrence D. Dahms, executive director, will retire at the end of the year.

ASSOCIATIONS

Canadian Transportation Research Forum named Gordon E. Tufts, president; Eric Hildebrand, executive vice president; Gail Sparks, secretary; and Jan Bowland, vice president-finance and treasurer.

The League of Railway Industry Women appointed the following new members of the board: Kathy McGrath (TTX Corp.), director-Midwest Chapter; Araceli Martinez (Progress Rail Services), director-Mexico Chapter; Corinne Nezic (KBX Corp.), director-Canada Chapter; and Cathy Richardson (Montana Rail Link), director-Western Chapter. Pat Kentner (Railway Educational Bureau) has been named a board member succeeding Sylvia Jeeter (Thrall Car), retired.

The Railway Association of Canada named Bill Rowat president.

Women's Transportation Seminar elected Laura Ray (Amtrak) president.

High Profile

Friction Management Services, LLG-a recent joint venture of The Timken Company and Tranergy corp.--has named Eric J. Wolf president. Wolf was integral in the formation of the new company, which will market TracGlide [TM], an "intelligent" top-of-rail lubrication system A 25-year rail industry vetran, Wolf began his career with TTX Co. and held a variety of positions in engineering, research, quality assurance, and maintenance planning. In 1996, he joined ABC-NACO and served as vice president engineering with responsibility for product development and product support for rail products.

Thrall Car Manufacturing Co has appointed H. Christian Schmalbruch president of Thrall North American Rail Car newly-created unit, with responsibility for marketing and sales, operations, material supply, finance and human resources. "Acknowledging the growing complexity of its expanding freight car business," Thrall says it has formed separate units for North America and Europe. Thrall opened European headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland, to oversee its manufacturing facilities in York, England, and Studenka, Czech Republic, as well as its Engineering Group, in Poprad in the Slovak Republic.