MxV Rail's Gonzales honored as LRW's Woman of the Year

By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor

The League of Railway Women recently honored MxV Rail President and CEO Kari Gonzales as the 2023 Railway Woman of the Year.

Gonzales, 43, was presented the award in January during the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association's (NRC) annual conference and NRC-Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association Exhibition in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Co-sponsored by Progressive Railroading, the award honors a woman who establishes a vision and culture of continuous improvement and creativity; brings excellence to her organization and community; and supports the personal and professional growth of others in the rail industry.

"Kari has demonstrated leadership and excellence, while supporting the personal and professional growth of others in the rail industry," LRW officials said when announcing the award.

Gonzales was appointed president and CEO of MxV Rail — formerly known as the Transportation Technology Center Inc. (TTCI) — in September 2021. She joined TTCI as a college intern while studying mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. After graduation, she joined TTCI full time as a senior engineer, and ascended through the organization’s ranks into roles that included vice president and chief financial officer.

A subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads, TTCI for a long time ran the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado. After the USDOT decided to award the TTC contract to another operator in 2021, TTCI opted to regroup, rename itself and relocate its operations, maintenance and research programs to a new site at the PuebloPlex facility in Pueblo County.

Today, Gonzales says the Railway Woman of the Year Award is special to her because she views it as validation of the hard work the MxV Rail team performed over the past three years.

"Together, we’ve been able to achieve a successful transition that I think many people doubted was possible," Gonzales says. "Our entire team worked tirelessly for a few years to make sure that our work could continue and that the industry would receive value from our programs."

Gonzales also values being recognized by a group that celebrates women who work in railroading. She's been active in the LRW for several years and uses it as a platform to encourage young people, especially girls, to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

"There are endless possibilities for young people who explore STEM careers," she says. "By going through a STEM curriculum, you’ll gain a set of skills that will carry you into any field that you choose."

One important skill she picked up during her engineering studies is grit, Gonzales says.

"Being a female in any technical field requires a mental toughness, courage and strength of character," she says. "I believe that you inherently gain those characteristics as you're exposed to new challenges, whether that’s in your education or your career."

Meet the new face of rail

She encourages younger people to seek out opportunities that will challenge them. When girls and young women ask her about pursuing work in rail, Gonzales says: "Just do it."

"The face of rail is changing," she says. "You're starting to see more women in higher positions. And I really believe that having a greater diversity of opinions and approaches across our industry is only going to improve our ability to better serve our customers."

MxV Rail is continuing to evolve in ways that better respond to the rail industry's new challenges, she says. Its services include consulting, the testing of new technologies, conducting scientific research, training first responders, and setting standards and best practices for safe, efficient and sustainable rail operations.

"We're continuing to add more capabilities as needs arise, but today we have about 20 miles of test track infrastructure," says Gonzales. "We have a full suite of lab capabilities ready to support the industry's research and testing needs."

Transitioning to the new site itself was a major challenge: New facilities and infrastructure had to be built and about $100 million worth of assets had to be moved when construction was completed. By October 2022, the new facilities were up and running. For Gonzales and the MxV Rail team, the whole process amounted to a perfect storm.

"I won’t say it's now calm after the storm, but it's been a pretty fantastic experience and one that I'm grateful to be a part of," she says. "Everybody really came together to make the transition a success."

MxV Rail's transition also entailed making what Gonzales characterizes as some hard decisions as to what the organization would be going forward.

"We did not want to just duplicate what was at the prior facility because that wasn't what was needed," she says. "So, we made decisions that aligned with the needs of the industry and focused on value-added capabilities."

During the transition, Gonzales and her team consulted with clients and industry representatives about what they needed to face current and future challenges.

"There were two prevalent pieces of feedback that we received. No. 1 was that we should use our knowledge in a more collaborative fashion and expand to serve the entire industry," she says. "The other thing we heard quite frequently was our pace and [the need to] more rapidly deploy our research results."

Focused on the future

Gonzales is pleased with the progress at MxV Rail and invites clients and others to visit the new facilities.

"If you come out and interact with our staff you’ll see a reinvigorated organization at new facilities, but also the same great talent and desire to positively impact our industry," she says. "And getting back to the concept of grit: Over the past couple of years, we've shown an overwhelming amount of grit and that our organization can thrive in the face of challenges."

Over the next three to five years, MxV Rail's focus will be on gaining new capabilities and knowledge in areas relevant to rail. A major focus will be on sustainability.

"Our initial focus has been on the environmental impacts because you see a lot of railroads and vendors starting to create opportunities and technology in that space," she says. "We’ve been supporting railroads and new suppliers on the evaluation of products that can serve the purpose of becoming more efficient from an environmental impact perspective."

In addition, MxV Rail is expanding into the "people" side of sustainability through its new nonprofit arm, the Learning Institute.

"As an organization, we're looking at how we can help develop the future people of rail," Gonzales says. "We're looking at not only how to recruit people, but also how to make sure we’re getting the right skills and talent well-positioned to serve the industry — whether that’s for a railroad, a vendor or a supplier."

That’s a challenge Gonzales is particularly passionate about.

Email questions or comments to julie.sneider@tradepress.com.