RailTrends 2012 Speakers and Their Bios

Chairman Daniel R. Elliott III was sworn in as the fifth chairman of the Surface Transportation Board on Aug. 13, 2009. He was nominated to the Board by President Barack Obama on June 20, 2009 for a four-year term expiring Dec. 31, 2013. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7, 2009.

Chairman Elliott brings to the Board two decades of experience as an attorney including 16 years litigating in the transportation field. Since coming to the Board, Elliott has moved quickly to bring more openness to the Board. He has begun holding public oral arguments on important cases and is following through on President Obama's push for government transparency by transforming the Board's Web site in order to make it easier for the public to follow Board proceedings.

Chairman Elliott has worked closely with Members of Congress and has met with a wide variety of stakeholders, including local elected and community leaders affected by Board decisions.

Chairman Elliott is also trying to bring more harmony to the relationship between shippers and railroads by breathing new life into the STB's dormant arbitration system and bolstering the Board's informal dispute resolution process.

Since 1993, Chairman Elliott served as associate general counsel to the United Transportation Union. At the UTU, he practiced before the Surface Transportation Board, where he was involved in a variety of cases. He also practiced before the National Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Board. Earlier, Chairman Elliott worked in private practice in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. handling a variety of litigation matters.

Chairman Elliott was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1962 and grew up in Cleveland. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1985 with a degree in political science and earned a law degree from Ohio State College of Law in 1989.

Session T05 "STB Update"