Watco forms safety team; makes appointments to West Region and SKOL

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Watco Companies has formed the Watco Safety, Training, and Compliance Team. The company says the team formation is an effort to continually improve focus on its people and customers.

 

Over the past several years, Watco’s safety initiatives were led by multiple teams serving different business units. Going forward, the company will have one clear safety focus and vision through the unification of these different groups. The company will retain the specialized knowledge and expertise necessary to serve and train the various disciplines that make up Watco, but will now do it with the support from one, united Safety Team.

Travis Herod will lead this team as senior vice president, Watco safety, training and compliance. He has been with Watco since 2004 and has led many improvement initiatives during his tenure.

Dan Perry will continue to serve as vice president terminals and ports safety, training and compliance. Jason Cathey will assume the role of vice president transportation safety, training and compliance.

In other Watco news, Jeff Deakins has been named to the West Region Operations Team as director of switching. Deakins’ main duties will be overseeing all West Region switching operations. He is based out of the Burley Regional office and will be supporting the teams at Solvay, OCI, Swan Ranch Railroad, Rawhide, Wallula, Condon, Black Thunder and the Hermiston car repair shop.

Deakins has 17 years of experience in railroading and came to Watco from Ohio Central Railroad, where he was the superin¬tendent of transportation. He has also worked for CSX as a conductor, yardmaster, trainmaster, labor relations manager and terminal manager.

Additionally, Don Carona has been appointed general manager for the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad. Carona will be responsible for the overall performance of the railroad and reinforcing the continuous improvement culture with an intense focus on driving safety and operational efficiencies.

He previously worked for Canadian National from 1998 to 2014. He held positions as conductor, yardmaster and trainmaster.

 

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