Job description: With over 30 years of rail industry experience with L.B. Foster, Shelly has exemplified innovation as she's led teams in product management and sales. She continuously challenges the status quo when it comes to product, process and problem solving. As L.B. Foster's trackwork manager, she was responsible for developing turnout drawings and specifications for short line and regional railroads in the northeastern United States.
Why she's influential as an innovator: When short lines in the Northeast increased their customer base, they needed to upgrade their track infrastructure and standardize materials. They turned to Shelly, who took the time to walk the track, understand customer needs, propose standards and create drawings for the railroads' projects. Similarly, she assisted with turnout maintenance and track construction of multiple large-scale industrial complexes. In one instance, an industrial customer faced significant track downtime when having to replace custom switch points and stock rails. The customer's maintenance process required industry-standard materials. Shelly met with the customer several times, measured the custom points and stock rails and worked with L.B. Foster teams to produce prefabricated points and stock rails for this customer, which cut the customer's rail operations downtime and safety risk.
As Northeast regional sales manager, Shelly executed L.B. Foster's first contract for the 320-foot Rail Train, which can transport 320-foot-long pieces of rail without the need for a complete continuous welded rail train. On a New York City-area project, Shelly brought the 320-foot Rail Train concept to life by identifying customers' needs and working with L.B. Foster teams to sell the value-add of the new offering. She established train unloading locations and processes, received train movement approval from multiple linehaul railroads, and negotiated the commercial terms and conditions. Her innovation laid the groundwork for additional 320-foot Rail Train projects across North America.