Michael Barron
Mr. Michael A. Barron is President, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr. Barron has been a developer of new business enterprises for nearly 30 years. Mr. Barron began his career in 1971 where he was the Senior Planner for the City of Monterey and was the HUD liaison for the City’s downtown redevelopment project. He master planned the city’s redevelopment of famous Cannery Row, Fisherman’s Wharf, and was Secretary of the Architectural Review Committee. Mr. Barron was the founder of Citidata, the first electronic provider of computerized real estate multiple listing service (MLS) information in the nation from 1975 to 1979. Citidata became the nation’s largest provider of electronic real estate information and was sold to Moore Industries in 1979. In June 1979, TRW hired Mr. Barron to develop its real estate information services division (TRW/REIS) that acquired 11 companies in the field and eventually became the world’s largest repository of real estate property information - Experian. In November 1988, he founded and served as President, until 1992, of Finet Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:FNCM), a publicly traded mortgage broker and banking business specializing in e-mortgage financing on site in real estate offices and remote loan origination via the Internet (www.finet.com). The company was publicly traded and maintained a market capitalization of $500 million. From March 1995-1998, Mr. Barron pioneered the first nationwide commercially deployed video conference mortgage financing platform for Intel Corporation which as a licensed mortgage banker and broker in 20 states funded over $1 billion in closed loans. He later went on to serve as CEO for Shearson Home Loans and founded Liberty Capital, a $100 million asset management company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Barron holds a B.S. degree from California Polytechnic University. Michael A. Barron has served as Director on Las Vegas Railway Express’ Board of Directors since inception. Mr. Barron’s experience as our president
Wanda Witoslawski
Ms. Wanda Witoslawski serves as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer of the Company. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Witoslawski was Controller for Ocean West Enterprises 1999-2005 and managed the mortgage banking function of that California mortgage bank. Her duties included accounting responsibility for over 200 branch offices, management of a $100 million mortgage bank warehouse line, payroll, general ledger and corporate accounting for SEC filings of the publicly traded company. Upon acquisition of Ocean West by Shearson Home Loans in 2005, she became Controller of publicly traded Shearson conducting the accounting operation for a staff of 1,350 employees including payroll, branch accounting and credit line management for over $200 million in warehouse banking credit. She assisted the CEO and President in the acquisition of five mortgage companies and development of a 250 office branch system with funding in excess of $1 billion per year, controlled the expense accounting & managed Shearson’s eighteen consecutive quarters of profitability. She has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Gdansk, Poland, a diploma in Marketing from Kensington College of Business, London, England and a diploma in professional accounting from Learning Tree University, Irvine, CA.
Ronald Batory
Mr. Ronald L. Batory is appointed as Director of the Company effective August 6, 2014. Mr. Batory has more than 43 years of experience in the railroad industry, serving in various administration and operating management positions of considerable responsibility. He has worked for Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company, Southern Pacific Transportation Company, The Beltway Company of Chicago as a President and as a Vice President for Consolidated Rail Corporation. Mr. Batory has served on the board of directors of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge Company, Arkansas & Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company, Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association. Mr. Batory holds a BA in Business Administration and a graduate Master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University.
Gilbert Lamphere
Mr. Gilbert H. Lamphere serves as Independent Director of the Company. Mr. Lamphere has served as a director of the Company since October 1, 2011. Mr. Lamphere serves on the Board of Directors of CSX Corporation and has served on the board of Canadian National Railway, Chaired the Board of the Illinois Central Railroad and served on the board of Florida East Coast Railway (350 miles down East Coast of Florida). He was also instrumental in the investment and oversight of Mid-South Rail. Mid-South, Illinois Central and Canadian National became successively the most efficient railroads with the lowest operating ratios in North America. He is the Managing Director of Lamphere Capital Management, a private investment firm which he founded in 1999 and Chairman of FlatWorld Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded private equity company. He has served as a director of numerous other public companies, including Carlyle Industries, Inc., Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., R.P. Scherer Corporation, Global Natural Resources Corporation and Recognition International, Inc. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lamphere was Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Lamphere’s railroad industry knowledge and experience qualify him to serve on our board of directors.
John O'Connor
Mr. John M. B. O'Connor is Independent Director of the Company. Mr. O’Connor is Chairman of J.H. Whitney Investment Management, LLC, a position he has held since January 2005. From January 2009 to March 2011, Mr. O’Connor also served as Chief Executive Officer of Tactronics Holdings, LLC a Whitney Capital Partners portfolio Holding Company that provided tactical integrated electronic systems to U.S. and foreign military customers as well as composite armor solutions for military vehicles through its Armostruxx division. Previously, Mr. O’Connor was Chairman of JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management, Inc. (part of the investment manager arm of JP Morgan), Chairman of JP Morgan Incubator Strategies, Inc. (a hedge fund investment arm of JP Morgan) and an Executive Partner of JP Morgan Partners (a private equity firm) and responsible for all proprietary and client Hedge Fund and Fund of Fund activities of JP Morgan, in addition to his responsibilities as a Senior Private Equity Manager. He was also a member of the Risk Management Committee of JP Morgan Chase, which is responsible for policy formulation and oversight of all market and credit risk taking activities globally. Mr. O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tulane University and an MBA degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Mr. O’Connor serves as a special consultant in a pro-bono capacity for the U.S. Department of Defense and is an appointed special consultant to the Department of Defense Business Board. He is a member of the Senior Advisors Panel of both the United States European Command and the United States Southern Command and a member of the Highland Forum which supports the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Mr. O’Connor also serves on the boards of the Fund for the City of New York (an organization which develops and helps implement innovations in policy, programs, practices and technology in order to advance the functioning of government and nonprofit organizations) and The Animal C
