Mike Haverty (born June 11, 1944) is a fourth generation railroader who began his career as a switchman/brakeman in 1963 for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in his hometown of Atchison, Kansas. In 1970 he went to work for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.
Haverty spent 21 years at Santa Fe, mostly in operating department positions, before being elected president in 1989. He served as president from 1989 to 1991. He formed his own company, Haverty Corp, after leaving Santa Fe and traveled internationally looking for railroad investments. In 1995 he was recruited to run the Kansas City Southern Railway. In 2001 he became chairman, president and CEO of Kansas City Southern, a transportation holding company with railroads in the United States, Mexico and Panama. He retired from Kansas City Southern in 2015 after a 20-year career with the company.
Personal life
Haverty was educated by the Benedictines in grade school, high school and one year of college in Atchison before transferring after St. Benedict's College (now Benedictine College) dropped football and he transferred. He went on to graduate from the
University of Louisiana-Lafayette (BA), has an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...
from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
and an Honorary PhD in Humane Letters from Benedictine College.
Haverty has been married to his wife, Marlys, for fifty-seven years and they have three children and eleven grandchildren. Mike and Marlys Haverty reside in Mission Hills, Kansas. Their three children, and seven of their eleven grandchildren, live in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.
Since 2020, Haverty has been a minority stakeholder in the
ownership group of the
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...
.
See also
*
List of railroad executives
This is a list of railroad executives, defined as those who are presidents and chief executive officers of railroad and railway systems worldwide.
A
* Edwin Hale Abbot, Abbot, Edwin H. (1834–1927), Wisconsin Central Railway (1897–1954), WC ...
References
1944 births
20th-century American railroad executives
21st-century American railroad executives
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway presidents
Kansas City Southern Railway
Living people
Kansas City Royals owners
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