Anacostia taps former KCS exec Naatz to become COO

Anacostia Rail Holdings (ARH) yesterday announced it has hired Michael Naatz to be chief operating officer of the short-line holding company.

Most recently, Naatz was executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Kansas City Southern. There, he led the company to strong growth. Prior to his CMO role, Mike was SVP of operations support and chief information officer, where he led intermodal operations, mechanical, service design and IT, according to an Anacostia press release.

Before joining KCS, Naatz was president of YRC Holland, where he also served as chief customer officer. Naatz launched his career at Westvaco, a global packaging company.

"Mike brings a strong supply chain background to our railroads,” says Anacostia President and CEO Peter Gilbertso,. "His success in a broad range of transportation and logistics positions — and our previous experience with him as an industry peer — makes us confident in his ability to provide strategic leadership and execution that supports the needs of our customers and growth.”

Anacostia owns and manages six U.S. railroads.

”Short-line railroads are known for their strong customer-focused culture, and Anacostia is a leader in safety, responsive service and innovation," said Naatz. "I look forward to helping leverage the proven talent and skills across all of Anacostia’s railroads in support of continued growth.”

Meanwhile, Anacostia announced this week that it has entered into an agreement with RailPulse to deploy location and safety telematics for the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. It will be the first Anacostia railroad to install maintenance-free telematics units supported by the RailPulse open-architecture rail-car platform on 100 recently delivered cars.