People News: The Broe Group, PTSI Transportation

Chris Tecu, Senior Vice President Industrial Development, The Broe Group (left); and Frances Phillips, Senior Advisor-On Board Specialists and Customer Service, PTSI Transportation (right).

The Broe Group names Chris Tecu as Senior Vice President Industrial Development. Also, PTSI Transportation appoints Frances Phillips Senior Advisor-On Board and Customer Service and elects two new additional members to its Board of Directors.

Real estate, transportation, energy and investment organization The Broe Group has named Chris Tecu as Senior Vice President Industrial Development, effective immediately.

In his new role, Tecu, who brings an impressive two-decade career encompassing more than one billion dollars of commercial leases for institutional owners and Fortune 500 tenants while working for nationally recognized real estate firms, will lead the development of rail-served real estate projects created by their proximity to existing OmniTRAX railroads, Broe affiliated industrial parks, and real estate assets with a “strategic or synergistic connection with the rail network,” according to the company.

Rail-served real estate continues to demonstrate operational efficiency for Broe clients across industry, the company said. By incorporating freight railroad services directly into project design, Broe says it has “dramatically lowered transportation costs and carbon footprints for customers while increasing transportation safety, including the 2022 NAIOP award-winning rail-served flatbed distribution center for The Home Depot.”

Through its real estate affiliate, Broe Real Estate Group (BREG), and its transportation affiliate, OmniTRAX, The Broe Group has “harnessed the power of rail and real estate to provide turnkey rail and warehouse solutions that optimize supply chain performance,” the company stated in a release.

“This new hire is a strategic addition to address a clear market need–the intense demand for paired rail and real estate projects driven from a surge of domestic onshoring activity,” said BREG CEO Douglas Wells. “Chris brings the expertise, relationships, and insights to serve this key segment.”

“Paced by a historic wave of domestic onshoring projects, demand for industrial space in the U.S. is at record levels,” Broe said. According to the company, in the next two years alone, a forecasted one billion square feet of increased industrial market demand is needed to serve continued supply chain projects. In the last five years alone, The Broe Group has brought $5 billion of companies to rail, including rail projects for Proctor & Gamble, Clorox, Lineage Logistics, Commercial Metals Company, BP, and The Home Depot.

“With 25 rail operations serving industrial parks and ports across the U.S., OmniTRAX continues to provide custom rail solutions that give our customers a competitive advantage,” said OmniTRAX CEO Dean Piacente. “I look forward to helping Chris create safe, reliable, and efficient rail solutions for new rail-served real estate customers across the network.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity to bring turnkey rail and warehouse solutions to a market that prioritizes efficiency and optionality more than ever,” said Tecu. “I’m excited to work with a talented team that brings the resources, agility, and commitment to create customer-centric supply chain solutions.”

PTSI Transportation, a transportation management consultancy based in Rutherford, N.J., on May 5 announced that Frances (Fran) Phillips has been appointed Senior Advisor–On Board and Customer Service and will also serve the joint venture of On Board Specialists, a combination of PTSI Transportation and United Kingdom firm On Board Solutions, effective immediately.

Phillips has worked in interior restoration, editing, and art and historic crafts, but most recently has headed an enterprise dedicated to catering of privately owned railcar travel and railway event catering. She serves as Executive Chef, responsible for all planning, purchasing, logistics, and on board and customer service for deluxe rail-based catering. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Dining Car Society.

PTSI Transportation is the sole North American member of the International Rail Catering Group, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Phillips will head the PTSI Transportation and On Board Specialists effort to bring IRCG-fostered best practice in railway catering to the North American market, including national passenger carriers, regional and local tourist operators, and luxury tour train operators.

Additionally, Patricia (Patty) Chemka Speranza and Richard H. Phelps have been elected to PTSI’s Board of Directors, which has concurrently been expanded from five to seven members.

Chemka Speranza is the former Deputy Commissioner of Public Works and Transportation for Westchester County, New York. Since her retirement from the County, she has served as Chief of Staff and Senior Director–Public Transportation of PTSI Transportation.

Phelps is the former Vice President–Transportation of Amtrak, having risen through the ranks of the Amtrak operating department. Following his retirement, he was Executive Vice President of RailPlan International, and Senior Director–Railway Operations and Management of PTSI Transportation.

Chemka Speranza and Phelps join Richard Rudolph, Ph.D.; Robert C. VanderClute; Joshua Coran PE (Secretary); John O. Hedrick (Vice Chair); and Michael R. Weinman (Chair) on the PTSI Transportation Board.