John Head
Amsted Rail
Director – Global Product Development
Granite City, Illinois, USA
Amsted Rail
Director – Global Product Development
Granite City, Illinois, USA
John works with customers and stakeholders around the world to strategically grow Amsted Rail’s international business. A big believer in freight trains’ conservation advantages versus truck transportation, he brings this conviction and understanding of the global rail markets to our various working groups within the company so they can effectively collaborate in their goal of business expansion.
The challenges of moving into his international commerce role motivates John to sharpen his skills every day. He constantly finds himself negotiating with colorful personalities, navigating cultural differences, coordinating time zones, travel, and mastering a much broader range of products and specifications as compared to dealing with domestic North American business.
“Moving freight by rail instead of truck lowers greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75%, on average.”
Working for Amsted is a great source of pride for John and he’s always ready with a quote to tout its importance. “If railroads did not move freight in the United States, it would take over 99 million additional trucks traveling on public roadways and would require four times more fuel than rail to handle the freight Americans rely on every day.”
Spreading the gospel of green far and wide, John is a leading proponent of railroads being the most efficient way to move freight over land. He also likes to share that while freight railroads account for roughly 40% of U.S. long-distance freight volume, they only account for 0.5% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
John admires the fact that management emphasizes family as priority one, and work comes second. “That mindset resonates with employees and drives me to work hard and make the most of my time at Amsted.” This positive energy makes John feel like he’s part of something bigger.
Speaking of bigger, John sees Amsted Rail making more meaningful contributions to the future of transportation through the advent of the transit division, while sustaining its core freight market. The company’s flexibility inspires him to continue collaborating and finding fresh methods and strategies for selling Amsted Rail products in existing and new global regions. “It’s very rewarding to break down cultural barriers and cross-pollinate ideas and solutions.”
“Here at Amsted Rail, we don’t just meet the industry standards, we set the standards.”