Alexander K. Kummant (born 1962) was named by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

on August 29, 2006, as the railroad company's new

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

effective September 12 of that year. He succeeded David L. Gunn in this position who was dismissed in November 2005, and

David Hughes David Hughes may refer to: Arts *Dave Hughes (born 1970), Australian comedian *Dave Hughes (producer), American television producer and editor *David Hughes (illustrator), British illustrator *David Hughes (Emmerdale), fictional character in the I ...

who had been serving as interim president. Kummant submitted his resignation from Amtrak on November 14, 2008. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University's engineering school in 1982. Before working for Amtrak, Kummant had worked as an executive for

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

(UP) where he fulfilled several Vice President roles. After UP, Kummant also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Komatsu America Corporation. Before that, he was president of

BOMAG ''Bopparder Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft mbH'', better known by the acronym BOMAG, is a German company and a global market leader in compaction technology and manufactures soil, asphalt and refuse compaction equipment, as well as stabilizers and rec ...

, the

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manufacturer of

road roller A road roller (sometimes called a roller-compactor, or just roller) is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at la ...

s and other construction material compacting equipment. As Amtrak president and CEO, Kummant was more conciliatory towards the survival of Amtrak in its current form than Congressional Republicans had been during the early 2000s. During his term, he did not support Congressional proposals to split the Northeast Corridor (the segment from Boston to Richmond) from the rest of Amtrak's operations; nor did he envision shedding the long distance east-west routes of Amtrak. Kummant submitted his resignation on November 14, 2008. Upon his resignation, Amtrak COO William Crosbie assumed the role of interim CEO, but was succeeded on November 25 by former FRA administrator Joseph H. Boardman. Don Phillips claims that inside sources indicate that Kummant did not in fact resign voluntarily, but was made to quit because of a dispute with the board of directors about debt restructuring. In October 2012, Kummant was recruited by QR National in Australia, becoming Executive Vice President Strategy.

References

1942 births Living people Amtrak presidents 21st-century American railroad executives {{US-rail-bio-stub

See also

References