RailTrends 2012 Speakers and Their Bios

Christopher Aadnesen is the Alaska Railroad's President & CEO. He assumed this post in mid-September 2010. Just prior (2007-2010), Aadnesen worked for HNTB Corporation, a nationwide consulting firm. Based in Austin, Texas, Aadnesen led national freight rail services for all seven of the U.S. Class One railroads.

From 2004 to 2007, Aadnesen was CEO and chairman of the management board for Estonian Railways (ER). Like ARRC, ER provides passenger and freight services and is owned by a government (privatized in 2001, ER ownership was sold back to the country in a year-long process overseen by Aadnesen). In 1996, Aadnesen founded Capitol City Group, a consulting firm in Austin. Actively participating through 2009, Aadnesen specialized in rail transportation and logistics, management, strategic and business planning, and quality systems development.

From 1996 to 2000, Aadnesen held several executive positions for the Texas Mexican Railway and TFM (the first privatized Class One section of the old Mexican National Railway), including COO and executive VP. The two decades prior (1973-1995), Aadnesen was employed by the Union Pacific (UP) working with nearly every department involved with railroad management.

Aadnesen earned a bachelor's degree and a master of business administration degree from the University of Utah. Subsequently, he completed University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University executive management programs.

Session T09 "Alaska Railroad: Combining Freight and Passenger Rail in the Last Frontier"