NARS recognizes Dodd, Mann with leadership awards

The North American Rail Shippers Association (NARS) yesterday announced it will recognize Richard Dodd and Bruce Mann as the recipients of its annual awards honoring leadership excellence in the rail shipping industry.

Dodd, founder and president of RDC Logistics and former NARS president, will receive the NARS Edward R. Hamberger Lifetime Achievement Award. Mann, director of freight mobility at the Port of Houston, will be honored as the 2020 NARS Person of the Year.

"At a time when the industry is faced with such unique and diverse challenges, it is important that we acknowledge and learn from those who demonstrate exemplary leadership," said NARS President Tom Tisa in a press release.

Dodd has spent his career working for multiple blue-chip companies. He founded consulting company RDC Logistics in 2007. He has served transportation organizations in a variety of capacities as he joined the Southwest Association of Rail Shippers (SWARS) board in 2003, and served as SWARS President from 2009-2011. He was NARS president from 2015-2017.

"He has positively influenced the successes of NARS and SWARS, and has inspired all of us who have had the privilege of working with him through the years," SWARS President Dale Diulus said of Dodd.

Mann is recognized as a transportation industry expert with more than 20 years of experience, NARS officials said. He has served on the SWARS board since 2013 and was elected to the NARS board in 2015. He currently serves as the second vice president of NARS.

"Bruce's leadership and his dedication to NARS, SWARS and all of the NARS regional associations has helped guide the growth of the organization and benefited our members by assuring they receive the networking and industry insights they have come to expect from the NARS organizations," Tisa said.