STB tabs former BNSF exec as economics director, adds senior adviser

The Surface Transportation Board has appointed Marty Schlenker as director of its Office of Economics and Terrence McDermott as senior adviser to Chairman Patrick Fuchs, adding two officials to the agency as it handles major rail competition, rate and merger matters. Fuchs announced the appointments Sept.

24, saying Schlenker’s selection was made with the Board’s approval. Both Schlenker and McDermott had been serving at the agency in temporary transition roles before receiving the permanent appointments. The appointments come as the STB’s workload includes its review of Union Pacific’s (NYSE: UNP) proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC).

The Board in August adopted a procedural schedule for considering the revised major-merger application. In late September it rejected motions from BNSF (NYSE: BRK-B) and CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) seeking summary denial of the proposal. Schlenker will lead the Office of Economics, the STB unit that supplies economic analysis supporting the regulator’s decisions.

That work is central to a broad range of cases before the agency, including railroad rate disputes, service and competition issues, and transactions requiring the regulator to assess marketplace and shipper effects. McDermott will serve as senior adviser to Fuchs, who has chaired the five-member rail office since January 2025.

The STB in a statement said the personnel moves are intended to strengthen the agency’s expert staff and support its ongoing reform efforts. Schlenker worked for 17 years at BNSF Railway, rising to assistant vice president of technology services.

He later served as head of analytics and applications for Parallel Systems, which is developing autonomous railcar technology. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McDermott spent more than a decade with commodity trader Bunge (NYSE: BG), as director of supply chain — North American Rail.

He worked for more than 10 years at Ferromex, as chief marketing officer and vice president of sales and marketing. Subscribe to FreightWaves’ Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your inbox. Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more: Union Pacific begins battery-electric locomotive testing in Southern California Intermodal rail powers up with 7% gain for latest week Next phase for autonomous railcar technology in commercial service testing Greenbrier racks up $600 million in new railcar orders New $100M inland rail terminal will handle 60,000 TEUs a year The post STB tabs former BNSF exec as economics director, adds senior adviser appeared first on FreightWaves.