Asplund Named RDC EVP

Nathan M. “Nate” Asplund

Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) has named Nathan M. “Nate” Asplund in a new role as Executive Vice President, responsible for support and business development for RDC’s businesses worldwide.

 Asplund, who joins RDC effective March 1, 2022, comes from Fort Worth-based Columbia Strategic Consulting Group (CSCG), which he co-founded and is Partner/President. Columbia’s capabilities include project support and advocacy for the freight rail and logistics industry, transportation public affairs, and tribal and first nation relations. Prior to CSCG, Asplund served as CEO of Florida East Coast Railway from 2018 to 2020, and as President and CEO of the Red River Valley & Western Railroad from 2015 to 2017. 

From 2010 to 2015, Asplund served as BNSF Assistant Vice President, where he was general manager of BNSF’s Mexico subsidiary and led a team focused on intermodal transportation via five international gateways accessed by BNSF and its partner railroads in Mexico. Asplund joined BNSF in 2007 to head its public-private partnership team and “successfully pioneered partnerships with the public sector to remedy rail infrastructure chokepoints in several Midwest and Western states.” RDC noted.

From 1994 to 2007, Asplund was with Crowley Maritime Corp., where he developed marine transportation and logistics projects in the U.S., South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Russia, and Africa. Prior to that, beginning in 1988, he worked for Burlington Northern, focusing on agricultural export traffic to the Pacific Rim and Mexico. 

Asplund also recently served as Chairman of the Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council (RSTAC), a 15-member panel that advises the Surface Transportation Board (STB).