When the Burlington Northern Railroad purchased the railroad in 1980, he became Director of Trains and Terminals for his region; as part of his work, he first met Mike Haverty, who he would later succeed as President and CEO of Kansas City Southern.
[2]: 2:05-5:50 In 1984, he joined Mi-Jack Products and, working for Jack Lanigan, started up In-Terminal Services.
[1][2]: 7:15–7:55 After overseas posts in the Philippines and Hong Kong, he was recruited to work on the Panama Canal Railway rehabilitation project, which Lanigan and Haverty were working on as well; he moved to Panama in 1999, and construction finished in July 2001.
The transition occurred just as the company suffered a major 23-day outage along a mainline in Mexico due to Hurricane Alex.
[2][5] He stepped down as President on March 1, 2015, and as CEO on July 1, 2016, handing control to Patrick J.