Rail Insights 2023: UTLX’s Suprenuk, Railroad Financial Corp.’s Nahass Focus on Equipment Market

Katharine Suprenuk and David Nahass

Union Tank Car Co. (UTLX) President of Leasing Kate Suprenuk and Railroad Financial Corp. President and Railway Age Financial Editor David Nahass will tackle the often-unpredictable rail freight equipment market during Railway Age’s ninth annual Rail Insights Conference, presented virtually on June 22.

Promoted to President of Leasing at UTLX (part of Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company) in January 2022, Suprenuk has served the company for more than six years. Prior to her current position, she was Vice President, Portfolio and Services Strategy. In addition to leading UTLX Leasing, Suprenuk oversees the portfolio activities of Carrotanques Unidos, UTLX’s leasing affiliate in Mexico, and partners with Procor Leasing, UTLX’s Canadian affiliate, to coordinate North American railcar leasing activities. Suprenuk has more than 30 years’ experience in business, finance and strategy, including nearly two decades in GE Capital’s Intermodal and Railcar Leasing divisions, where she served as Chief Financial Officer.

David Nahass has been with Railroad Financial Corp. for 23 years and serves as Railway Age’s Financial Editor. “The railcar lease market has continued the upward pressure on lease rates and tautness in availability,” he writes in the publication’s 2023 Guide to Equipment Leasing. “We are now entering almost three full years of sequential increases in lease rates. As any industry veteran will tell you, what makes this current cycle different from previous cycles of increasing lease rates on railcars is two separate and impactful points. One is the long duration of the current cycle, and that this current cycle, even in the face of a potential recession, does not show any signs of near-term abatement. Two is that railcar manufacturing has always been a boom/bust series of events that built the supply to satiate the need in the moment of demand. However, in this current cycle, railcar manufacturing has maintained an austerity.”

Rail Insights 2023 is, overall, a dialogue with the industry’s leadership on key strategic challenges, issues and trends. The conference will explore business growth, capital investment, technology, regulation, service quality and safety in the North American rail market—freight and passenger. 2023 has thus far been extraordinary, for reasons that have converged, all at once. Railroads are under intense scrutiny for perceived safety and service problems. Freight traffic, including the critical intermodal sector, isn’t experiencing a robust recovery, as the economy shows signs of weakness. Passenger rail is looking at a financial crisis as federal COVID relief funding is set to expire. And a transformational merger creating North America’s first and only Canada-U.S.-Mexico single-line transnational railroad, CPKC, is well under way.

Other key executives at the center of all this activity will join Railway Age’s experienced editorial team in candid, open discussions. In addition to Suprenuk and Nahass, you’ll hear from keynoter Alan Shaw, Norfolk Southern President and CEO; Canadian Pacific Kansas City President and CEO Keith Creel and Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer John Orr; Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski; TD Cowen Managing Director, Industrials – Airfreight & Surface Transportation Jason Seidl, Railway Age’s Wall Street Contributing Editor; and Commuter Rail Coalition CEO KellyAnne Gallagher.

You’ll be able to ask questions of the people who have made themselves available to Railway Age’s wide industry audience. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity, in this extraordinary year! REGISTER NOW.