NEW AMTRAK CEO: William J Flynn

[John_Perkowski]

This just in (1015AM Central Time) from the New York Times...

Amtrak, Struggling to Keep Trains Running, Chooses a New Leader: William J. Flynn, chairman of Atlas Air Worldwide, will take over as the railroad’s finances improve but its political fortunes remain turbulent.

NOTE: If you are not a subscriber to the times, you have a limited number of articles per month before a paywall kicks in. Be warned.

[Greg Moore]

NY Times articles says that the Board is looking to replace Anderson come April 15th William J. Flynn, the chairman and former chief executive of Atlas Air Worldwide.

I can't say I've even heard of Atlas Air Worldwide.

[CNJGeep]

I believe he also did a stint at CSX prior to 2006, although I doubt it was doing anything practical

[Tadman]

2000-2002 VP of Merchandise or something like that. Prior to that he was at Sea-Land, the former CSX container sub.

I'm not thrilled about this. Atlas has had some safety issues and Mr. Anderson was slowly getting the right thing done at Amtrak, although upsetting lots of stakeholders in the way.

[Greg Moore]

My initial take is, "I'm not a fan of all the policies of Mr. Anderson, but I think this could be a worse choice."

We'll see.

[Ridgefielder]

NY Times articles says that the Board is looking to replace Anderson come April 15th William J. Flynn, the chairman and former chief executive of Atlas Air Worldwide.

I can't say I've even heard of Atlas Air Worldwide.

Atlas is a big cargo and charter carrier; they also own an aircraft leasing biz. Headquartered in Harrison, NY (in the Westchester suburbs), been around for 25-30 years or so. Odd place for an Amtrak exec to come from...

[SRich]

Amtrak changes CEO’s more quickly than I change my cars

[ryanov]

I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but I struggle to think of a positive change that came from Anderson’s tenure. Yes, lots of things are positive if you think stripping Amtrak to the bare bones is positive. Not talking about that, obviously.

[Backshophoss]

Lets keep an open mind on Mr Flynn,Mr Anderson still has fingers in the pie till year's end.

[CVRA7]

His experience at CSX, from a National Defense Transportation Association biography:

"At CSX Transportation, he was Senior Vice President responsible for the industrial unit of the railroad and was Senior Vice President responsible for Strategic Planning at CSX Corporation."



As Backshopboss said - "let's keep an open mind on Mr Flynn."

[Matt Johnson]

Does the makeup of the board matter more than the identity of the CEO? Hopeful for no radical changes, since most change that I've seen of late involves cutting more than building.

[RRspatch]

The question that needs to be asked is was Anderson forced out. I know he didn't make a lot of friends in Congress and was told to keep his hand off of the National (long distance) trains. It will be interesting to hear what the background story is on this.

Oh, and yes, another airline dude. Really?

[pateljones]

Amtrak certainly likes hiring airline executives.

[gokeefe]

I can't say I've even heard of Atlas Air Worldwide.

They have quite a bit of government business. And by "quite a bit" I mean it's most of their business. They fly a lot of people a lot of places and help support the "mission". If you're a veteran you've probably flown them at least once.

He's a good fit for Amtrak on that basis alone because he's comfortable dealing with some of the most demanding federal agencies out there. His tenure at Atlas was quite long and while the recent crash occurred during his tenure it is unclear to what extent company culture, policies or procedures which Flynn would have molded were or were not a contributing factor.

For those who are thinking of the old "lowest bidder" saw with regards to some of their passenger flights I feel comfortable saying that "the customer" does not appear to have shared that mindset in the past 20 years.

Bottomline: The thing I like the most about this is that the White House does not appear to have been heavily involved and the new hire has very significant government experience with a passenger air carrier. Pretty good profile for a new Amtrak CEO.

[Gilbert B Norman]

So Mr. O'Keefe, one more of those airlines that only the Defense Department knows. I guess same for "Coronavac Air"., (Kalitta) but everybody knows of them now.

Here's the Journal's coverage:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amtrak-hir ... lewebshare

Paywalled maybe, but as a print subscriber, I think it should go through.