People News: UP’s New CIO, RailPros’ Service SVP

Union Pacific has named Rahul Jalali as Chief Information Officer; Jon Panzer, who served as interim CIO, becomes Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning. RailPros has hired Mark Wheeland as Senior Vice President, Service Delivery.

UP appointed Jalali to lead the development, implementation and operation of the Class I’s information and telecommunications technologies. He served previously as Vice President of Walmart International, and spent 23 years at Walmart Inc., leading IT organizations. Panzer will now be responsible for facilitating, implementing and overseeing UP’s strategic agenda. Both will report to Chairman, President and CEO Lance Fritz.

RailPros has added Wheeland to the management team to focus on its “Service Excellence principles and service delivery that models the safety values and standard practices of our rail industry clients.” He spent 40 years at UP, holding leadership roles in track maintenance, track programs and track welding. Wheeland served most recently as AVP Track Maintenance, Southern Region.

RailPros, founded in 2000, describes itself as “a comprehensive provider of outsource services to the freight and transit/commuter rail industries. RailPros provides turnkey engineering, project/program, and construction management, and flagging safety services to both public and private customers. In addition, RailPros has training and media production capabilities.” It has 14 offices nationwide, with headquarters in Irving, Texas.

In other People News, the League of Railway Women (LRW) has named its scholarship honorees, the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) has announced its academic competition winner, and Quandel has hired a new VP.