CSX: Boone Recognized for Sales Success, CSX TRANSFLO Marks Milestone
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Kevin Boone, CSX Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer
CSX on Dec. 19 reported that Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Boone, a Railway Age readers’ Most Influential Leader honoree for 2022, earns a spot on The Top 100 Global Sales Leaders list for 2023 (GSL100), and the CSX TRANSFLO Terminal in Chattanooga, Tenn., celebrates a safety milestone.
The GSL100 is published annually by The Modern Sale, a digital publication produced by the Collective[i], a technology company focused on using artificial intelligence in sales and marketing.
The sixth-annual list honors “a diverse group of trailblazers who have redefined the role of a revenue generator,” according to The Modern Sale; honorees, including CSX’s Boone, were “among thousands of applicants who were nominated by their peers and vetted by judges who weighed their experience, agility, ability to innovate, and overall impact on the sales profession.”
As CSX Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer, Boone oversees the Class I railroad’s profitable growth strategies as well as customer service, customer engagement and business development activities.
“Bringing a keen eye for transportation economics to CSX when he joined the company from the investment industry in 2017, Boone quickly focused his vision on opportunities for CSX to leverage its service improvements by aggressively pursuing new rail-based solutions that compete head-to-head with trucks,” according to Railway Age’s article on the subscriber-selected Influential Leaders for 2022. “Since being named to lead the CSX Sales and Marketing team in 2021, Boone has driven new service initiatives and value-added offerings in addition to overseeing major business wins. Among the most significant accomplishments under his leadership was acquisition of Quality Carriers, the largest liquid bulk chemicals trucking carrier in North America, which has enabled CSX to offer shippers the first integrated intermodal chemical transportation solution of its kind. In addition, Boone is leading CSX’s strategy to become more deeply embedded in customers’ supply chains through solutions that package warehousing, transloading and trucking into door-to-door service offerings.
“Boone also has led the CSX Sales and Marketing team to a series of key business wins, including the selection of three CSX-served sites for major new battery-electric vehicle manufacturing complexes—Ford in Tennessee, Rivian Automotive in Georgia and VinFast in North Carolina. He has developed strong customer rapport and pursued innovative relationship-building initiatives, such as CSX’s new Environmental Excellence Awards, which recognize customers for lowering their carbon footprint by shipping more freight by rail. Boone’s vision for rail business growth is having a profound impact at CSX and creating a blueprint for increasing rail’s share of the freight transportation dollar.”
The Modern Sale’s GSL100 also recognized Marc Cameron, Senior Vice President, Resource Industrial Sales, Services and Technology at Caterpillar, Inc.; Amy Davis, President, New Power Business at Cummins Inc.; Spencer Frazier, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.; Chris O’Brien, Chief Commercial Officer of C.H. Robinson; and John Waldron, Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer at Honeywell International.
“This year’s GSL100 features truly accomplished sales leaders across all industries and sectors,” said Heidi Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of The Modern Sale. “Each of them is making such a difference in their organizations; they deserve this very public, international recognition.”
“It’s an honor to be selected for the GSL100 list that includes so many talented sales and marketing leaders at companies that are setting the pace in their respective industries,” Kevin Boone said. “For CSX to be represented among some of the world’s leading brands is a testament to the quality of the Sales and Marketing team that has embraced our vision of innovation and elevating the rail customer experience.”
Also, CSX’s Chattanooga, Tenn.-based TRANSFLO Terminal has marked 35 years without a lost-time injury. The Class I shared on social media a special video outlining the achievement, which it said is due to the “entire team’s safety-first mindset and commitment to continual improvement.”
“We always look out for each other,” according to Tom Smith, Terminal Manager of CSX TRANSFLO in Chattanooga, which has nine employees and transfers materials, including chemicals, between railcars and trucks. “We have big support from upper management. Everything that we do, we try to embrace a great safety culture with everybody.”
“To be able to work 35 years without a lost-time injury is a great accomplishment,” CSX TRANSFLO Regional Operations Manager Doyle Massey said in the video. “The Terminal Manager sets the culture here at the facility, so for having Tom Smith here for 35 years, that’s a long culture of working safe … When it comes to safety, you can never rest … You can never take for granted what you did yesterday. You always have to improve. ONE CSX allows everyone to have a voice when it comes to safety and working safe; regardless of where you are in the company, it allows you to speak and to promote safety.”
Tom Smith noted in the video that he takes pride in his job. “Not a lot of people stay on the job for 35 years,” he said. “The pride of doing the job right and sending my crew home safe every day, makes sure that the job was done right.”
In a related development, CSX Engineering Vehicle Operator McKinley “Mac” Williams of Baltimore, Md., recently reached 57 years of rail service.
