Leadership
Henry Posner III
A graduate of Princeton University (BS-Civil Engineering), Mr. Posner also holds an MBA (Finance) from the Wharton School. Mr. Posner entered railway service at Conrail, serving the Operating, Marketing, and Sales departments in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia.
He serves as Chairman of Railroad Development Corp.; Iowa Interstate Railroad; RDC-Deutschland; RégioRail; and The Hawthorne Group. He also serves as a director of Eurorail; and a director of Vivarail. In addition to serving as Chairman of the EBT Foundation, he is also serving as Iowa Interstate’s alternate director at the Association of American Railroads; a member of Advisory Council of Princeton University’s Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS); a board member of the Independent School Chairpersons’ Association (ISCA); and as an Emeritus Trustee and former President of the Winchester Thurston School.
He teaches an undergraduate course on rail deregulation at Carnegie Mellon University and has lectured and published extensively on railway matters. He was a contributor to the book Railway Transformation, published in 2010 by Eurail Press under the auspices of the Community of European Railways.
Wick Moorman
Born in New Orleans, Wick earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1975. Shortly after, he was accepted into the Southern Railway’s management trainee program. He then served as a track supervisor and a division engineer before pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Harvard University. Wick returned to Southern Railway in 1989 and held a variety of senior management positions in several areas, including Transportation Planning, Personnel, Labor Relations, Information Technology, and Corporate Planning Services, before being named President of the Norfolk Southern Corporation in 2004. Under his leadership, NS achieved a record net income and operating ratio in 2014.
In 2016, Wick was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) and is now serving as a Senior Advisor. Wick also serves on the Board of Directors for the Chevron Corporation, Oracle Corporation, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, Georgia Tech Foundation, and the Nature Conservatory of Virginia. He also is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Smithsonian National Board.
Bennet Levin
A graduate of Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts (A&L 1961) and College of Engineering (IE 1965) he is a retired Professional Engineer. In 1967 he formed his own engineering firm and had a nationwide practice providing what was then traditional Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Services to Architects, Corporate Clients, and Developers. He was a founding board member of the Leonhard Center for Engineering Education and taught at Penn State, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 he became the City of Philadelphia’s Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections after having served as a member of the City’s Board of Building Standards for twenty years, the last seven as its Chairman. He has also served as a member of the City of Philadelphia’s Historical Commission and its Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Fascinated by trains and railroads since a child, he has bought and restored antique railroad cars and locomotives. He has served as a member of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) and its Passenger Service Safety Standards Committee. He was President of the American Association of Private Railroad Car owners in the early 1990’s and also was President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society. He currently serves on the Board of the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum and the Advisory Board of the Friends of the Railroad Museum of the State of Pennsylvania.
His Juniata Terminal Company, located in Philadelphia is in the business of leasing locomotives and restoring railroad equipment from a bygone era. He has also served as a Trustee of the Army War College Foundation in Carlisle, Pa.
Ronald L. Batory
Ronald L. Batory is a career professional with more than 45 years of field and system experience in the railroad industry. He spent the first 23 years of his career working for both eastern and western Class I railroads in addition to serving along with a court-appointed Trustee’s successful oversight of a regional railroad bankruptcy.
Then in 1994, he was appointed President of The Belt Railway Company of Chicago, a multiple owned subsidiary of then nine (9) competing Class I carriers. His leadership success in serving their needs in Chicago Gateway led to CSX and Norfolk Southern Corporation later recruiting him to Consolidated Rail Corporation in preparation of their STB approved partitioning of eastern carrier and establishing what is now commonly known as the Shared Assets Areas. The accomplishment of that unique task in providing a plane of equality for joint competition later favored him in being appointed to his last position of President & Chief Operating Officer for the entire corporate entity.
Upon his retirement in 2017, he pursued public service in Washington, D.C., which resulted in a Presidential nomination and unanimous consent by the United States Senate to become the 14th Administrator of The Federal Railroad Administration. Ron is a graduate of Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan, with a B.A. degree along with an M.A. degree from Eastern Michigan University. He has served on various governing boards associated with the sectors of both industry and education.
Pete Claussen
Herman Peter Valentine Claussen II was born in Bloomfield NJ to Herman and Catherine Claussen. Though generally called Pete, he is sometimes referred to as “Mr. Pete” or “Piston Pete.” Mr. Claussen graduated from Lafayette College with an AB degree in English and from Rutgers Law School with a JD degree.
After graduation, he joined the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, Tennessee where he worked for 13 years as an attorney, Assistant General Counsel, and Division Director. In 1979 he joined the 1982 World’s Fair as Vice President-Legal Counsel, leaving that position in 1983 with the wrap-up of the Fair Corporation. In 1985 he established Gulf & Ohio Railways (G&O) of which he is Chairman. Gulf & Ohio Railways owns and operates four railroads in the Southeastern United States.
Mr. Claussen is the founder and Chairman of the Seven Islands Foundation which recently donated land to help create Tennessee’s 56th State Park, Seven Islands State Birding Park. He has also served as a member of the Smithsonian National Board, as co-chairman of the Alumni Board, and has been a member and past Chairman of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. He is a past Chairman of the Legislative Policy Committee of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association and a past member of its Board and Executive Committee. He also serves on the Boards of the Legacy Parks Foundation, the Tennessee Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and the Knoxville Zoo.
Joe Kovalchick
The Kovalchicks have been pillars of the Indiana County community for nearly 90 years. Joe’s parents, Nick and Fannie Kovalchick, started the family business in 1928, and Joe has continued to build and diversify the company with great success. Joe and his wife of almost 50 years, the former Judy Geyer, have three children. Their son, Nathan, joined the business in the 1990s.
In the early 1960s, Joe and his father saved the Kinzua Bridge in McKean County from demolition and sold it to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which incorporated it into Kinzua State Park. The United States Railroad Association board of directors appointed Joe Kovalchick in the 1970s to help place values on the six railroads that were combined to form Conrail.
Along with Nathan, Joe owns the Franklin Industries steel mill, one of the largest employers in Venango County. The Kovalchick Corporation over the years also has acquired the 416-mile Texas and Oklahoma Railroad, the 15,000-acre West Penn Coal Company, and the 70-mile Knox and Kane Railroad.
Joe and Judy donated the 16-mile long former railroad corridor that became the Ghost Town Trail in southeastern Indiana County and provided a segment of land that forms the Hoodlebug Trail in the Homer City area. They also donated former rail corridors for the Roaring Run Watershed Trail near Apollo and the Huntingdon and Broad Top rail trail near Bedford. Joe has devoted more than 30 years to the board of Indiana Regional Medical Center and has served as chairman and in various other positions. He has actively supported every major charity in the area and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The university’s Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, which was built on a former major Kovalchick Corporation property, is named for Joe’s parents.
Jane Sheffield
Jane Sheffield is the executive director of the Allegheny Ridge Corporation, where she works tirelessly to bring opportunities to rural communities along the Main Line Canal Greenway between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
Prior to joining Allegheny Ridge in 1995, she directed New Hampshire’s statewide historic preservation organization and served as Altoona’s first main street manager. Sheffield holds a degree in economics and psychology from Duke University and a master’s in landscape architecture from N.C. State School of Design. During her tenure as president of Heritage PA’s association of its twelve heritage areas, the organization has launched branding, advocacy, and communication strategies to educate the public about the impact of heritage area work across the Commonwealth.
She also serves on Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Board, Preservation PA, and the September 11th National Memorial Trial Alliance helping to facilitate the route across our state. Jane is the president of the Episcopal Church Women and Vestry member at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Hollidaysburg. She lives across the street in a historic home renovated by her husband Joel Koss and enjoyed immensely by their three dogs.
Linn Moedinger
Linn started work for the Strasburg Railroad in August of 1968 in grounds maintenance and as an enginehouse helper. Promoted to fireman sometime in the fall of 1968. Two and one-half years in the Army from December 1969 until June 1972. Engine messenger on #89 from Bellows Falls Vt. to Strasburg via Wilkes Barre during Agnes in June/July of 1972. Promoted to engineer in 1973. Enginehouse foreman 1976 to 1988. Chief Mechanical Officer 1988 to 2000. President and Chief Mechanical Officer July 2000 to December 2018 when I retired from the Strasburg Railroad. Currently serving on the Colorado Railroad Museum Advisory Board, the EBT Foundation Advisory Board, and the EBT Foundation Board of Directors.
He is a Member of the Engineering Standards Committee for Steam Locomotives, starting in 1991. Linn also serves as the Secretary of ESC and NBIC Subgroup for Steam Locomotives and participated in writing the Federal Railroad Administration’s new steam rule, 49 CFR, Part 230, and the NBIC repair rules for steam locomotive boilers. He was the Chairman of the ASME subgroup on locomotive boilers until 2018, chairman of NBIC Subgroup Locomotives until 2019, member of NBIC Subcommittee on Repairs and Alterations, member ASME BPV-I and ASME subgroup Locomotives.
Dan Kruger
Daniel Kruger is an infrastructure and project development lawyer at Baker Botts L.L.P. in Washington, D.C. With a lifelong passion for railroads, Mr. Kruger began his legal career at Norfolk Southern before serving as the Associate General Counsel of Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, the operator of the Boston-area commuter rail system. Since joining Baker Botts, he has continued to represent railroads, including the developers of a greenfield high-speed rail passenger system, developers of cable and conduit infrastructure located within railroad rights of way, a major locomotive manufacturer, and businesses engaged in developing railroad terminals and related facilities.
In addition to his railroad-related work, Mr. Kruger regularly advises developers and owners of utility-scale power generating facilities across the United States, including several of the largest existing solar projects, as well as pipeline and cable carriers, manufacturing companies, hotels, and residential real property developers. He has extensive experience drafting and negotiating engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts, stand-alone agreements for design and construction services, and land acquisition and shared facilities documents. Mr. Kruger holds a B.A. in History from Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, and a J.D. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and spent a year supported by a fellowship at the University of Cambridge, England, researching aspects of German subversion in Ireland during the Second World War.
Mr. Kruger and his wife live in Maryland and are the proud parents of two boys. The eldest, at age three, recently corrected his father on the distinction between a hopper and a gondola.
Brad Esposito
Brad, a native to Punxsutawney, began his railroad career as the last employee hired on by the Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad before it was absorbed into the Buffalo and Pittsburgh shortline, operated by the Genesee and Wyoming. Brad quickly rose up the ladder within the organization, serving as the Road Foreman of Engines, Transportation Manager, Director of Transportation, and eventually as Assistant General Manager in 2015. His roots at the EBT began with the railroad serving as a family favorite for excursions, his father visited with his parents in the 1960s, and Brad was brought to Rockhill for the first time by his parents in the 1980s. Brad became an active member of the Friends of the East Broad Top and was involved with several restoration projects on the property, including the stabilization and reconstruction of the boiler shop. Brad led the effort to bring together the EBT Foundation and was chosen to serve as the railroads General Manager and a member of the Board of Directors.