Mike Haverty

Last updated
Michael R. Haverty
Born (1944-06-11) June 11, 1944 (age 79)
Atchison, Kansas
Occupation railroad executive

Mike Haverty (born June 11, 1944) is a fourth generation railroader who began his career as a switchman/brakeman in 1963 for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in his hometown of Atchison, Kansas. In 1970 he went to work for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. This ended a 105-year Haverty family affiliation with Missouri Pacific that started in 1865 when his great grandfather, an immigrant carpenter from County Galway, Ireland, began work as a laborer on a Bridge & Building gang for the railroad in Atchison.

Haverty spent 21 years at Santa Fe, mostly in operating department positions, before being elected president in 1989. He served as president from 1989 to 1991. He formed his own company, Haverty Corp, after leaving Santa Fe and traveled internationally looking for railroad investments. In 1995 he was recruited to run the Kansas City Southern Railway. In 2001 he became chairman, president and CEO of Kansas City Southern, a transportation holding company with railroads in the United States, Mexico and Panama. He retired from Kansas City Southern in 2015 after a 20-year career with the Company.

Awards include: Railway Age magazine's “Railroader of the Year” in 2001, as the architect of the NAFTA Railway; Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2008 Award in the transportation category in the Central Midwest regional program and a finalist in the national program; Progressive Railroading magazine's 2011 Railroad Innovator Award, which recognizes an individual's outstanding achievement in the rail industry; Official induction into the National Railroad Hall of Fame in Galesburg, Ill. in June 2012 after being selected as a member in 2006; Whitman School of Management's Salzberg Medallion at Syracuse University in October 2012, which celebrates achievements in supply chain management; and National Industrial Transportation League and Logistics Magazine's 2014 Executive of the Year – The John T. McCullough Award in November 2014 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Haverty was educated by the Benedictines in grade school, high school and one year of college in Atchison before transferring after St. Benedict's College (now Benedictine College) dropped football and he transferred. He went on to graduate from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (BA), has an MBA from the University of Chicago and an Honorary PhD in Humane Letters from Benedictine College.

Haverty has been married to his wife, Marlys, for fifty-seven years and they have three children and eleven grandchildren. Mike and Marlys Haverty reside in Mission Hills, Kansas. Their three children, and seven of their eleven grandchildren, live in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.

Since 2020, Haverty has been a minority stakeholder in the ownership group of the Kansas City Royals.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BNSF Railway</span> American freight railroad

BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.

Southern Railway or Southern Railroad may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway</span> Former railroad company in the United States

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States.

In 1948, 14 railroads in North America owned more than 1,000 steam locomotives each. See also: Historical sizes of railroads

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gateway Western Railway</span>

The Gateway Western Railway was a Class II railroad that operated 408 miles of former Chicago and Alton Railroad track between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. It also operated between Kansas City, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois on the old Alton Railroad line that eventually was the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrus K. Holliday</span> American railroad executive (1826–1900)

Colonel Cyrus Kurtz Holliday was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the township of Topeka, Kansas, in the mid 19th century; and was Adjutant General of Kansas during the American Civil War. The title Colonel, however, was honorary. He was the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, as well as one of the railroad's directors for nearly 40 years, up to 1900. A number of railway locomotives have been named after him, as well as the former town of Holliday, Kansas. He was also the Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Kansas. As a Freemason, he was a member of Topeka Lodge #17 and was highly influential in the decision of moving the State Capitol to the city of Topeka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Nickerson (ATSF)</span>

Thomas Nickerson was an American railroad executive. He served as the eighth president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF), between 1874 and 1880. He was also president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Depot (El Paso)</span> Amtrak train station in El Paso, Texas

El Paso Union Depot is an Amtrak train station in El Paso, Texas, served by the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited. The station was designed by architect Daniel Burnham, who also designed Washington D.C. Union Station. It was built between 1905 and 1906 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic and Pacific Railroad</span> Subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railway

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was a U.S. railroad that owned or operated two disjointed segments, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Needles in Southern California. It was incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1866 as a transcontinental railroad connecting Springfield, Missouri and Van Buren, Arkansas with California. The central portion was never constructed, and the two halves later became parts of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway systems, now both merged into the BNSF Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas City Terminal Railway</span>

The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III terminal railroad that serves as a joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the United States' second largest rail hub after Chicago. It is operated by the Kaw River Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul P. Hastings</span>

Paul Pardee Hastings was a prominent executive of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.

The V&S Railway is a shortline railroad that operates two disconnected lines in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is affiliated with A&K Railroad Materials. The company acquired its first line, a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line between Medicine Lodge and a BNSF Railway junction at Attica, from the Central Kansas Railway in 2000. In 2006 it expanded its operations by acquiring from the Hutchinson and Northern Railway a short segment of former interurban in eastern Hutchinson, where it interchanges with the BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Other railroads under common control with the V&S are the out-of-service Kern Valley Railroad in Colorado, the Gloster Southern Railroad in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Grenada Railway and Natchez Railway in Mississippi, a portion of the former Rock Island from St. Louis to Union, Missouri operated by the Missouri Central and the Southern Manitoba Railway in Manitoba.

The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.

The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.

References

    Business positions
    Preceded by President of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
    1989 1995
    BNSF merger
    Preceded by President of Kansas City Southern Railway
    1995 2008
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by
    The Railroad Worker
    Railroader of the Year
    2001
    Succeeded by