MARS' Young Professionals group evolves into a recruitment tool
11/15/2024
By Bridget Dean, Associate Editor
It can be intimidating to walk into a conference of 1,000 people when you don’t know anyone in the room.
Former president of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers’ (MARS) Harry Zander knew that, and it’s why he founded the MARS Young Professionals group in 2015.
“I recall trying to bring these younger people to these meetings; their first reaction was ‘I don’t know anyone,’” says Zander, a senior adviser at Patriot Rail Co. Zanders introduced pre-reception meetings to MARS events: 10-minute meetings for new members and young professionals to learn about what MARS does, and what newcomers could expect from the associations' regular meetings.
Following that success, Zander put together a volunteer committee of members to organize events. MARS is one of five regional associations of the North American Rail Shippers Association (NARS) and is composed of Midwest-based railroad owners, vendors and shippers. The organization hosts two annual meetings, during which members network and engage in discussions and educational programs about issues affecting their industry and freight rail transportation.
MARS Young Professionals generally are under the age of 45; the group has become an official committee of the association. Confident that it would grow, Zander bowed out from active oversight of the group a few years ago. The Young Professionals committee now consists of MARS executive board members Mike Richardson, who works for chemical company Kemira, and Catie Stoos, who works for GATX Corp.; and MARS members Elie Dakhoul of CN and Kristin Dixon of Third Coast Commodities.
A ‘more robust’ agenda
In June, Richardson, 35, took over as chair of the Young Professionals committee from Stoos, whom he credits with getting the committee an organized events calendar. Richardson, who has been in the rail industry in a shipping capacity since 2014, is a rail logistics manager at Kemira. He’s been a member of MARS since 2014 and has been attending Young Professional happy hours and social events since then.
“In 2020, I reached out to (MARS) about being interested in participating or volunteering to be part of the executive committee,” says Richardson. “I’m probably one of the younger folks on the executive committee, so they kind of leaned on me as a young professional.”
Richardson believes the group has become “more robust” in its organization and routine meeting attendance in recent years. For example, the committee defined three major purposes of the Young Professionals: service, education and networking. New this year, the Young Professionals sponsored a fundraiser during the MARS’ scholarship golf outing at the association's annual summer meeting, held in July this year in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The golf charity event raised $3,600 for a Lake Geneva camp for children living with cancer.
Richardson says the committee is kicking around ideas for more frequent outings, such as trips to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to volunteer in different capacities. He’s found that service events are a networking opportunity for people new to the rail industry.
Over the past two years, the Young Professionals’ outings have included tours of rail yards and a reload facility. In September, members toured the CN Chicago intermodal terminal and transload facility, as well as the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad’s Blue Island yard.
“We had a few people that were really new to the industry ... Their eyes lit up as the rail cars were moving past them at the Blue Island yard, and (they) were just asking so many questions,” Richardson says.
The facility tours are especially impactful for Young Professional members who have office jobs, he says, as they help people understand what rail shipping work entails at the operations level.
Finding future industry leaders
Looking ahead, Richardson says one priority for the group will be to expand beyond events held in, and membership drawn from, Chicago. In particular, the committee is interested in branching out to the Milwaukee, Indianapolis and St. Louis areas.
“I would say the mentality is really ‘no stone left unturned.’ We’re open to any clever ideas,” he says of the group’s potential. The MARS executive board supports the Young Professionals, giving the committee the necessary funding to support networking activities.
The Young Professionals’ increasing profile has become a recruitment arm for MARS and a pipeline for future executive board members, just as Zander envisioned when he launched the group in 2015.
The group also has become a retainment tool for the entire rail industry and the shippers that serve it, according to Richardson.
“We can help facilitate a culture that gets people excited about the industry, and I saw that firsthand at our event,” says Richardson, recalling members’ excitement when touring the CN and Blue Island yards. “That could keep someone in the industry (who) could be a rising star.”
