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6/2/2023
BNSF Railway Co. President and CEO Katie Farmer will be honored with the 2023 Silver Kingpin Award at this year’s Intermodal EXPO, the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) announced yesterday.
Launched in 1977, the award recognizes an individual’s contributions to intermodalism. Farmer began her 31-year career in railroading with Burlington Northern in 1992 as a management trainee. She went on to assume positions in network operations, finance, customer service, sales and marketing. She also served as group vice president of BNSF Railway's intermodal and automotive business.
In 2018, Farmer was named executive vice president and chief operating officer. She was promoted to president and CEO in 2021, becoming the first woman to serve in that role at a Class I.
“Katie’s career exemplifies what the Silver Kingpin Award is about — an individual’s significant impact on the intermodal freight transportation industry,” said IANA President and CEO Joni Casey in a press release. "Her professional accomplishments — which include her 2015 and 2016 terms as the first woman chair of IANA — are inspirations for the next generation of intermodal professionals."
Farmer also formerly served as president of the National Freight Transportation Association.
The Intermodal EXPO will be held Sept. 11-13 in Long Beach, California.
Previous Silver Kingpin award winners include Steve Branscum, a retired BNSF intermodal executive; Ted Prince, co-founder of and chief strategy officer for Tiger Cool Express, and a former IANA chair; Barry Michaels, formerly Union Pacific Railroad's vice president of intermodal operations; Robert Huffman, a former Norfolk Southern Railway VP of intermodal; Clarence Gooden, formerly CSX's executive VP and chief commercial officer; James Hertwig, the former president and CEO of Florida East Coast Railway; and Frank Richter, Progressive Railroading's co-founder who died in 2013.