Rising Stars 2024: Cara Costa

Cara Costa, 38
Director, sales-private assets/national accounts
CSX

Nominator’s quote: “Cara is a hands-on leader and holds her team to a high standard. She finds ways to productively challenge her team, encourages them to think of new ways to support customers, and provides feedback to help her team members grow.” — Kia Warren, CSX

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, University of Florida; MBA, University of North Florida.

Job responsibilities: Responsible for developing intermodal growth strategies and selling intermodal products and services to asset-owning intermodal customers. Additionally, responsible for educating and facilitating intermodal growth with the beneficial cargo owner (BCO) community.

Career Path: I joined CSX in 2011 as a graduate intern supporting the customer site-assessment initiative, a multiyear initiative to conduct on-site surveys with tenants of any facility located on active or inactive rail across our network. In 2012, I moved to the intermodal commercial group supporting the new highway-to-rail beneficial cargo owner (BCO) initiative. I’ve spent the last 12 years in various intermodal roles touching a variety of products and numerous key initiatives.

How or why did you get into the rail industry? While in graduate school, I was working in a role I didn’t love. To kick-start the job search process, I submitted my resume to the university’s career center for review. An hour later they called and asked if they could submit my resume to CSX for a posting closing that day. I interviewed the following week and have been with CSX ever since.

What’s the best advice that you’ve received in your career? Always seek out new opportunities to learn. In addition to gaining knowledge and adding to your skill set, trying new things allows you to build new relationships, which are so important in the rail industry.

What advice do you have for someone new to railroading? Say yes to as many new opportunities as possible. Regardless of your role, find ways to interact with customers. Conversations with customers will connect and provide meaning to everything you learn. Be coachable and ask for feedback -- people want to invest in those that are willing to put in the work to grow.

What was your first job? I worked summers in the finance department at an import freight consolidator.

Share a fun fact about yourself. I met my husband through a fellow CSX intern; they were roommates at the time. We now have three boys under 5 years old who keep us busy.

If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be? My lifelong best friend. We live 1,500 miles apart and I don’t get to see her as often as I would like. For me, there is nothing better than time spent with family and friends.

Who has had the most influence on your career? I’ve been fortunate to have several bosses who have always felt like mentors more than managers. Arthur Adams and Maryclare Kenney, in particular, have been instrumental in my development.

They’ve taught me and demonstrated repeatedly how to motivate and unify a team, connect with and influence others, to problem-solve creatively and so much more. Most important, they believed in my capabilities and provided me with opportunities and space to grow. I often find myself sharing the same advice with my team that I learned from them.

What is the biggest challenge facing the rail industry today? Staying ahead of technological advancements is crucial for competitiveness. Whether it is technology that can make rail easier to do business with, minimize impacts of disruption, maintaining competitive transit times in a world where consumers demand faster deliveries, or better leverage the significant amount of data available to us to drive new markets, products, customers and ultimately growth, staying at the forefront of technology is essential.