Rising Stars 2023: Lauren Berry

Lauren Berry, 31
Director of TRANSFLO marketing and strategy
CSX

Nominator’s quote: “Before being promoted to director of TRANSFLO marketing and strategy, Lauren made significant contributions to the acquisitions of Pan Am Railways and Quality Carriers as a member of CSX’s strategy organization. In her role at TRANSFLO, Lauren is responsible for growing and expanding the company’s rail-to-truck transloading business as an important part of the company’s growth strategy. In her first year, TRANSFLO achieved record revenue.” — Kia Warren, CSX

Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance, Florida State University.

Job responsibilities: My team and I are responsible for developing and executing the marketing, pricing and growth strategy for TRANSFLO.

Career path: After graduating, I joined CSX through the Finance Leadership Development Program (LDP), a six-month rotational program designed to give recent graduates exposure to different roles in the organization before being placed in a full-time position. After LDP, I spent four years in finance supporting the engineering team and then the consumer products commercial team. In 2019, I joined the commercial team as a member of the newly created strategy and analytics team led by Kevin Boone. I spent three years on this team and had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects including, most notably, the acquisition and commercial integration of Quality Carriers.

How did you get into the rail industry? I knew I wanted to go into corporate finance when I graduated but had not considered a career with the railroad. I met a group of CSX finance professionals at a networking event which is how I learned about the Leadership Development Program. I applied for the rotational program but chose CSX because of the people I met during the interview process.

What is the best career advice you’ve received so far? Make your team your top priority and invest considerable time in their development, no matter their career level, to unlock their full potential and drive better results for the organization. Understand each of their motivations, stressors, strengths and weaknesses and create a thoughtful development plan tailored for them.

What advice would you give to a new railroader? Spend time building relationships with other people at the company and look to develop an informal mentor/mentee relationship with someone you get along with well.

What was your first job? I started working in the ice cream shop at Bub’s Burgers & Ice Cream in Carmel, Indiana, when I was 15. I worked there as a server until I graduated from high school.

Share a fun fact about yourself My husband and I, both students at FSU at the time, met while studying abroad in Valencia, Spain. We spent the first three months of our relationship traveling around Europe together.

If you could have dinner with anyone alive in the world, who would it be and why? Michelle Obama. She is Ivy League educated, had a successful career, is a wife and mother, and has used her platform to support causes that are important to her and advocate for women and families. I would love to have dinner with her to hear the “unedited” version of how she has managed her work-life balance over the years and her advice for other women who strive to do it all.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career and why? My current manager, Eric Smith, head of merchandise sales and marketing. I began working for Eric in 2019 when he was leading the strategy and analytics team. He has invested a significant amount of time in my development and made it a priority to provide continuous coaching over the years to help develop various skills ranging from technical excel modeling to presenting to senior leadership. He has been a great mentor and his guidance has helped accelerate my career.

Describe a major obstacle in your career and how you surmounted it. I became a people leader shortly before COVID-19 hit and had minimal experience with remote work arrangements. Like many others, I found myself onboarding new team members I had never met in person while also trying to learn how to effectively lead a team from behind a computer screen.

I did a lot of research on remote work management techniques and talked to people I knew for advice who had remote jobs prior to the pandemic. There was trial and error along the way, but we worked together to find what worked best for our team.