Michael R. Haverty, a fourth-generation railroader, began his railroad career with Missouri Pacific Railroad Company in 1963 as a brakeman and completed its management-training program in 1967. In 1970, he moved to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway where he held various operating positions before serving as president and chief operating officer from 1989 to 1991. During his tenure, Santa Fe reorganized as one of the premier intermodal carriers in the United States, and established an historic partnership with J.B. Hunt, the first major venture bringing a Class I railroad together in business with a truckload carrier. Haverty was named president and chief executive officer of The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) in 1995 and held this position until January 2005. After the spin-off of the financial assets division in 2000, he was named president and chief executive officer of Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc. (KCSI).
In January 2001, he became chairman of the KCSI board of directors. In May 2002, the stockholders approved a change in the corporation's name from KCSI to Kansas City Southern, reflecting the focus on railway transportation. Today, he serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Kansas City Southern and chairman of KCSR and Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A de C.V. (KCSM). Under Haverty’s leadership, in April 2005, an agreement was reached placing KCSR, bridge carrier The Texas Mexican Railroad Company and Mexican railroad TFM under the common control of KCS. (TFM was renamed KCSM in December 2005.) This agreement, combined with strategic alliances with other Class I railroads, forges a rail network, known as the NAFTA Railway, that links the commercial and industrial centers of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, providing North American shippers with a viable alternative to other railroads and transportation carriers. Haverty also developed KCSR’s transcontinental intermodal corridor between Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia (with Norfolk Southern) via Meridian, Mississippi, called the Meridian Speedway, into one of the fastest growing intermodal lanes in the United States.
Today, KCS and Norfolk Southern operate the line between Shreveport, Louisiana and Meridian as a Joint Venture to maximize capacity and business opportunities on the line. As the architect of the NAFTA Railway, Haverty was named Railway Age magazine’s “Railroader of the Year” in 2001. Haverty is chairman of the board of directors of Union Station Kansas City, Inc. and sits on the boards of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, The River Club, the Smithsonian National Board and The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the John W. Barriger, III National Railroad Library, which is affiliated with the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; the University of Denver’s Intermodal Transportation Institute; and Midwest Research Institute’s Board of Trustees.
Haverty is a native Kansan, born in Atchison. He is a graduate of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and received a master of business administration from the University of Chicago. He is married, has three children, six grandchildren, and resides in Mission Hills, Kansas, with his wife, Marlys.
