AAR Names New President

Ian Jefferies has been named as the next president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

He currently serves as the organization’s senior vice president of government affairs.

Jefferies will assume his new duties Jan. 1, following the retirement of current AAR CEO Edward Hamberger.

“I am honored to work for a bedrock industry that delivers every day for the economy, and I appreciate the confidence placed in me to guide the AAR as we work to build an even stronger future for rail,” Jefferies said in a statement.

In a news release, the AAR said that as head of AAR’s government relations department, Jefferies has helped secure significant legislative victories, including managing advocacy surrounding the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, securing tank-car safety enhancements in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act and defeating multiple efforts to increase truck size and weight limits.

Before joining the AAR in 2013, Jefferies worked for more than a decade in government, including as a senior policy adviser to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. Government Accountability Office before working on Capitol Hill.

Tags: Association of American Railroads, Edward Hamberger, Ian Jefferies