Watco appoints three to new positions

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Watco Transportation Services (WTS) appointed Jason Cathey to safety director. He will be responsible for managing the Safety Department Training and QA programs, assisting with incident reporting and statistics record keeping and leading WTS safety initiatives supporting safe work practices among WTS locations.

 

Cathey began his railroad career 19 years ago with the Southern Pacific/Union Pacific (UP) as a brakeman/conductor. During his time with the UP, he was promoted to engineer, road foreman of engines and terminal manager. Other railroad positions he has held in his railroad career were with RailAmerica as senior trainmaster on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, as well as operations manager at two of Genesee & Wyoming’s locations. Most recently, Jason served as the general manager at the Louisiana Southern Railroad and as the incident reconstruction specialist with Watco Safety.

Watco Terminal & Port Services appointed Raul Garcia to terminal manger at its Pecos, Texas, facility. In this role, Garcia will be responsible for driving a cultural continuous improvement mindset with an intensive focus on safety and operational efficiencies. He will also drive high quality customer service, ensuring targeted profitability and supporting the overall attainment of expected performance goals.

Garcia joined the Watco team in February of 2014 and served as a crew supervisor. Prior to joining Watco, he worked for Applied Research Associates as facility manager and unexploded ordnance technician in Pecos.

Wato Mechanical Services (WMS) appointed Greg Garza to regional director of quality assurance. In this role, he will report to a member of the Mechanical Service Quality Assurance Team. In this role, Garza is responsible for directing, evaluating, managing and advancing the WMS Quality Assurance program at locations in Region 2, 3, and 4 in geographical areas encompassing the East and South.

Garza brings a wealth of experience that spans more than 30 years. Prior to joining Watco, he most recently was a project manager at Hewlett Packard where he was tasked with development of eight key software diagnostic tools.

 

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Watco appoints three to new positions

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Watco Transportation Services promoted Mike Stickel to vice president sales and marketing, East Region. With the acquisition growth of Watco's railroads across the company, additional marketing and sales resources are being deployed to ensure Watco is meeting customer's needs.

 

Stickel will be responsible for supporting and leading the East Region marketing team members to increase volume and revenue growth on the following railroads: Ann Arbor, Alabama Warrior, Birmingham Termi¬nal, Grand Elk, Pennsylvania Southwestern and Wisconsin & Southern. These roads will be considered Watco’s East Region from a marketing perspective.

Stickel joined the Watco team in December of 2012. Prior to joining Watco, Mike worked for CIT Rail, where he held the position of vice president of locomotive leasing. He has also worked for Helm Financial as vice president of marketing and Indiana Rail Road’s director of economic analysis and strategy.

Watco Terminal and Port Services hired Myles VanGorder as terminal man¬ger at its Pecos, Texas, facility. He will be responsible for driving a continuous improvement culture with a focus on safety and operational efficiencies. VanGorder will also promote high quality customer ser¬vice, ensuring targeted profitability and support the overall attainment of expected performance goals.

VanGorder comes to Watco with more than 16 years of operational experience. Most recently, he served as terminal manager for Paramount Petroleum in Nevada, where his duties included managing day-to-day operations for a 300K barrel facility. VanGorder also brings with him more than 15 years rail transloading experience.

Watco Western Australia Rail (WWAR) promoted Grant Thompson to senior vice president operations and Ken Potts has taken on overall responsibility of fi¬nance and administration, in addition to his current role of vice president new projects.

Thompson has served WWAR as vice president commercial and he now will take a senior position in operations improving upon the railroad’s overall performance. In addition to zone operations, Thompson will also provide direction to its Rollingstock Group, as well as its Customer Service Group, which includes train scheduling, crew rostering and dispatching.

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