Rising Stars 2023: Alex Clark

Alex Clark, 38
Director, human resources
Loram Maintenance of Way Inc.

Nominator’s quote: “Alex has facilitated numerous training sessions and trained over 100 of Loram's leaders, providing them the foundation of what good leadership looks like and requirements. Alex provides them with concepts and tools to use and role-plays real-life situations with the leaders to ensure they're able to apply the teachings in their everyday role whether that's in the field, shop or office.” — Susan Bobb, Loram Maintenance of Way Inc.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Minnesota; and master’s degrees in business administration and management from the College of Saint Scholastica.

Job responsibilities: Designing client-facing human resources strategies and processes that align with business processes and goals, combining strategy and execution planning to impact global solutions and priority capabilities. Also, lead the HR business partner, talent acquisition and learning and development teams.

Career path: Started out as an HR temporary worker for a rural hospital in 2008, later getting promoted to HR assistant and safety coordinator. Relocated to Washington, D.C., and worked as an HR generalist for EMCOR Inc.’s corporate construction services division. Moved on to work for Bombardier Inc.’s Baltimore location as supervisor of HR and labor relations, and later, HR compliance supervisor. Laid off due to company restructuring and landed with Sonstegard Foods Inc. as HR director. After almost three years, returned to railroading and joined Loram Maintenance of Way Inc. in 2022.

How did you get into the rail industry? My first rail job was with Bombardier as supervisor of HR and labor relations for the Baltimore location with over 150 employees and nine labor contracts. Soon after, I began supporting the overhaul shop in Kanona, New York, and a small maintenance group in Miami for a total of almost 200 employees. I also supported multiple bids for new contract services with transit agencies and was on the mobilization team for Bombardier when taking over North County Transit District’s Sprinter and Coaster operations in the San Diego area.

What is the best career advice you’ve received so far? “What interests my boss interests me.” This statement is about being aligned with your leader and finding solutions for the issues they’re focusing on. Your value to your leader and the team is derived from the solutions you generate.

What advice would you give to a new railroader? Be open to trying something new. There’s so much opportunity within a company like Loram to build your skillsets, obtain additional training and education and explore other positions within the business. Be willing to grow yourself.

What was your first job? I started out washing dishes at Perkins at 14 nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning throughout the school year.

Share a fun fact about yourself. I used to play tournament-level paintball nationally in my teens.

If you could have dinner with anyone alive in the world, who would it be and why? Warren Buffett, whose philosophies are simple and sound. He has the foresight to recognize value as well as the discipline and fortitude to be patient under pressure.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career and why? A former high school guidance counselor advised me, “College isn’t for everyone.” He told me that after my initial rejection of my preferred choice because my ACT test score was not high enough. I used that motivation to study harder and get a tutor, and took the test again and again until my score was sufficient and I was ultimately accepted. Since then, I have continued to reflect on this event for motivation after each setback I experience. Not everything comes easy for everyone. I have learned that some must work harder to succeed, and of those, only the ones who persevere will succeed.

Describe a major obstacle in your career and how you surmounted it. The biggest hurdle I overcame was in my first job. I was a temp employee at a rural hospital with an attached nursing home during the Great Recession. I was a temp for 15 months before finally convincing the CEO of the need for my role to be a regular position. I built the business case by measuring the impact of my efforts of driving an employee safety culture to decrease incident injury rates and create real cost savings through incident investigation, active case management, hazard mitigation and the launch of an accommodations program.