Hoback retiring; Mills named INRD president and CEO

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Indiana Rail Road (INRD) Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hoback will retire, effective June 30, 2015, from the helm of the railroad he has rebuilt from a broken-down branch line into a thriving regional railroad.

He will continue to serve as a director on the Indianapolis, Ind., -based railroad’s board while pursuing other business and philanthropic interests.

Additionally, the INRD Board of Directors appointed Peter Mills to assume the position formerly held by Hoback effective July 1. Mills, who is vice president of finance operations for CSX, has served on the INRD board for 10 years. He will resign from CSX on June 30 after a 26-year career and relocate to Indianapolis.

“After nearly 30 years of concentrated focus on growth and having reinvested nearly $200 million of our earnings into improvements, INRD is in the best physical condition it has ever been,” said Hoback, who founded the company in March 1986. “With innovative marketing and customer service, we have grown our business by a compounded rate of more than 12 percent annually and today we move the equivalent of more than 800,000 truckloads of freight per year.”

Mills has held numerous management and financial leadership positions for CSX, including managing director of investor relations and director of international sales and marketing for Europe.

“Pete is a natural fit to assume leadership at Indiana Rail Road because he will continue the legacy of entrepreneurial thinking that has made us so successful,” said Hoback. “He will bring a real passion for business development while drawing on his commercial management experience.”

In 1977, INRD predecessor Illinois Central Gulf petitioned to abandon the line from Indianapolis to Linton, Ind. The petition was denied, but the line was ordered closed after nearly 800 serious track defects were discovered in a 38-mile stretch. The railroad reopened two years later and shortly thereafter, ICG reached an agreement to sell the line to Hoback and his investors. Today’s INRD moves Indiana commerce to and from Asia and points all over North America and provides nearly 200 jobs.

 

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