Al Crown, CSX Transportation, Inc. executive vice president-transportation, announced that Ray Griffith, Jr. has been appointed assistant vice president-coal operations, effective immediately.
Griffith has more than two decades of railroad service, much of it in coal operations. In his new position, he will be closely aligned with Chris Jenkins, senior vice president-coal service group and Frank Pursley, senior vice president-service design. Griffith will serve as a coordinating link between operations and sales and marketing to oversee the allocation of resources, crews and locomotives to more efficiently serve CSXT customers.
“Coal is a major commodity for CSXT and crucial to our country,” said Griffith. “I look forward to the opportunity to drive improvement in the operation of our coal network for our customers, producers and our company.”
“Ray brings a vast amount of coal operations expertise to this position,” said Pursley. “He’s been involved in every facet of the coal business from customers and producers to network operations in the field and at headquarters.”
“While this change will be transparent to our customers,” said Jenkins, “Ray’s appointment brings an exciting focus to this important component of CSXT’s business. He has a unique field perspective and has already built excellent relationships with our customers.”
Griffith currently resides in Atlanta, where he served as assistant vice president-southern region. He will relocate to Jacksonville, Fla., and report to Pat Daly, vice president-network operations.
His 25 years of railroad service started in Martin, Ky., on the C&O Railroad, as a brakeman/conductor. Griffith has held numerous operational positions on the CSXT system including superintendent-operations in Huntington, W.Va.; assistant general manager-coal operations and general manager-network operations in Jacksonville, Fla.; and general manager-Appalachian Division in Erwin, Tenn. He is an alumnus of Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky.
