Heller was head of the Eastern Region of the Canadian National Railway, at the time the most successful privatised rail business in the world.

[11] On 14 February 2003 Heller with another CN executive, Scott Roberts, held a meeting with Gordon McGuinty of the Notre Development Corporation discussing potential plans to use the Adams Mine in Ontario for dumping landfill from Toronto, instead of shipping to Michigan.

[12][13][14] During a restructuring of CN's executives in mid-2003, Heller continued in his position as senior vice-president for the Eastern Canada Region, and reporting to the Canadian National CEO.

[1] In January 2004 Heller became the CEO of English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), Great Britain's largest rail freight operator,[17] taking over from Philip Mengel.

[25][26] Heller retired from Deutsche Bahn in January 2011 and was succeeded by Alain Thauvette also from Canada, who took over the Western Region covering the UK, France, Spain and Portugal.

[29] Heller had been based in the United Kingdom, something which did not occur with his successors until the appointment of Geoff Spencer as CEO of DB Schenker Rail UK in September 2013.

[36] In 2014 the Heller Family Foundation covered the cost of repainting the Canadian Railway Museum's locomotive number 1382 in traditional yellow and green livery.

[41] Heller was invited by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport to deliver their annual Sir Robert Reid lecture on 6 February 2008.

[43] The lecture was entitled "Creating a Stronger European Rail Freight Network", and was chaired by Richard Brown with Chris Green leading the formal vote of thanks.