In July 2025, the Eno Center issued a report entitled “Freight Rail for the 21st Century: Opportunities for Mode Shift to Improve Efficiency and Resiliency.” The main objective of the report was to provide policymakers and industry professionals with a resource including analyses and strategies to improve freight rail policy, with a specific focus on improving efficiency and resiliency.
In this webinar, experts from across the rail industry will provide their insights, concerns, and strategies for improving resiliency and efficiency in the freight rail sector with the hopes of ensuring its value as a competitive mode within the larger freight transportation network.
The webinar will feature two speakers: Chuck Baker, from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, Luisa Fernandez-Willey, from Canadian National Railways. Henry Posner III, from the Railroad Development Corporation and Iowa Interstate Railroad will be a co-moderator for this webinar, helping to guide the discussion.
Panelists:
Chuck Baker
Chuck Baker joined ASLRRA as President after a 15-year career in the railroad industry. Before joining ASLRRA he was a Partner at Chambers Conlon & Hartwell (CC&H), where, in addition to the ASLRRA, he represented clients such as the National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC), the OneRail Coalition, the American Railway Development Association, Norfolk Southern, and Canadian National. For the NRC, Chuck also served as its President. In that capacity, he had responsibility for the association’s core financial, operational, and legal programs, including the federal legislative and regulatory program in front of both Congress and the Administration. For the OneRail Coalition, a coalition of freight rail, intercity passenger rail, commuter rail, rail labor, and rail supply industry interests, Chuck coordinated the group’s activities and messaging. Prior to joining CC&H, he worked with the Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington, D.C. Chuck has also worked for Deutsche Bank Securities as an investment banker specializing in Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions in San Francisco, CA. Chuck is a native of Baltimore, MD, and a graduate of Rice University in Houston, TX.
Luisa Fernandez-Willey
Luisa Fernandez-Willey is the Principal Economist at Canadian National Railway (CN). She leads economic analyses and research on the North American transportation market and provides insights to support strategic decision-making for CN. Her railway experience encompasses the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Prior to joining CN, Luisa was the Assistant Vice President in the Policy & Economics Department at the Association of American Railroads (AAR), where she contributed to shaping regulatory discourse and building strategic partnerships within the industry. Some of her accomplishments at AAR include leading successful negotiations with the Servicio de Administración Tributaria, the regulatory body for Mexican railroads. She also designed, developed, and implemented Orrin, a data platform that provides a centralized location for data visualizations and downloads. Before the AAR, she provided financial management consulting to private-sector clients and conducted economic research for the Maryland state government. She also served as a university lecturer and published scholarly research in a peer reviewed international academic journal. Luisa holds an M.Sc. in Business and Economic Forecasting from Kingston University-London and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has also completed Michigan State University’s Railway Management Certification Program.
Moderators:
Henry Posner
A lifetime railway activist, Henry Posner held positions with Amtrak, The Official Railway Guide and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad during his college years. He entered full-time railway service at Conrail in 1977, serving the Operating, Marketing and Sales departments in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia.
He serves as Chairman of RDC, which he founded in 1987 with his partner Bob Pietrandrea, who retired in 2022. He also serves as Chairman of Iowa Interstate Railroad; RDC-Deutschland; EuroRail; and family investment firm The Hawthorne Group.
He serves as President of the EBT Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to restore and operate the East Broad Top Railroad; Iowa Interstate’s alternate director at the Association of American Railroads; Co-Chair of the Surface Transportation Board Passenger Rail Advisory Committee (PRAC); and a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Agriculture and Food Transport Subcommittee.
A graduate of Princeton University (BS-Civil Engineering), Mr. Posner also holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School. He teaches undergraduate courses on rail deregulation and privatization at Carnegie Mellon University’s, Pittsburgh and Qatar campuses, and has taught a graduate module at the Denver Transportation Institute. He has lectured and published extensively on railway matters and was a contributor to the book Railway Transformation, published in 2010 by Eurail Press under the auspices of the Community of European Railways.
He serves as a board member of the Independent School Chairpersons’ Association, and as an Emeritus Trustee and former President of the Winchester Thurston School.
His philanthropic activities include serving as the Chairman of the Posner Foundation, whose activities have ranged from support of the Jewish community in the Former Soviet Union to Operation Lifesaver. He was named among “75 People You Should Know” by TRAINS magazine for their 75th Anniversary; is the recipient of a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International for his work in Guatemala; and is an occasional contributor to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on regional affairs. His collection of railroad photography, spanning four decades, was recently made available through the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.
He writes haiku and speaks English, Spanish, French and Russian.
Sohail Husain, Policy Analyst, Eno Center for Transportation
