Leadership

Dean Piacente serves as the Chief Executive Officer for OmniTRAX, Inc., one of North America’s largest privately held transportation services companies. As CEO, Dean oversees the daily operations of the company’s Short Line Railroads, Terminal Services, Transload Services, and Industrial Development / Real Estate Services. 

One of the industry’s most respected rail executives, Dean amassed a diverse thirty-two-year career with CSX Corporation, a multibillion-dollar Class I Railroad Company. Piacente’s deep commercial, terminal operating, and finance experience is derived from multiple assignments and senior leadership roles including CSX Vice President Sales & Marketing, Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis, and President of CSX’s bulk transloading business TRANSFLO.  Dean’s industry service also includes board of director appointments to various transportation associations. 

A New York native and Florida State University graduate, Piacente holds executive education credentials from Harvard Business School and Columbia University.  

Sergio Sabatini brings 25 years of freight rail experience both in the Class 1 and short line space. Sergio is currently the President for OmniTRAX. Prior to being President, Sergio was the Chief Operating Officer for 6 years.

Prior to joining OmniTRAX’s Leadership team in 2013, Sergio served in several capacities with Canadian Pacific Railway over the course of eighteen years. These roles included the management of road and yard terminals in Field Operations, direct management, and oversight of all aspects of Safety, Risk Management and Hazardous Materials, as well as coordinating the company’s development and implementation of the strategic plan.

Sergio earned his M.B.A. from Royal Roads University, British Columbia, Canada.  He also holds a Bachelor of Science and a technical diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.

Robert Walker joined OmniTRAX as its Chief Financial Officer in early 2020 overseeing all finance functions including accounting, tax, financial planning, and treasury operations. Before coming to OmniTRAX, Mr. Walker served as Chief Operating and Financial Officer for The Madison Companies and affiliates, a private investment firm. Prior to The Madison Companies, he served as Executive Vice President and CFO of property operations and redevelopment at Apartment Investment and Management Company, a publicly traded REIT, and as Senior Vice President and CFO for Miller Global Properties, a private equity real estate fund manager.

Mr. Walker started his career in audit and advisory services at Ernst & Young before serving as Global Controller for GE Capital Real Estate. He is a CPA and earned an MBA from the University of North Texas and a BA in Accounting from the University of Texas.

Ryan Higgins serves as the Chief Commercial Officer at OmniTRAX, a role in which he is responsible for all aspects of customer relationships, growth and development.  This includes railroad sales and marketing, as well as industrial and economic development, corporate strategy and market research.

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Ryan joined OmniTRAX from CSX Transportation, where he held multiple positions in Sales, Marketing, Business Development and Operations in locations across the network.  He most recently served as Senior Director of Merchandise Sales, with responsibility for a $3 billion portfolio, including Agriculture, Food, Fertilizer, Ethanol, Metals, Military and Machinery.

Prior to joining CSX, Ryan spent seven years as a transportation industry consultant and analyst in Washington, DC, advising transportation agencies, rail shippers and carriers across North America with respect to a variety of strategic, commercial, operational, financial and institutional issues.

Ryan has an MBA in Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and a BA in Political Science from DePauw University.  He also holds the Certified in Transportation & Logistics (CTL) designation from the Association of Supply Chain Management.

John Spiegleman serves as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of OmniTRAX and Broe Real Estate Group (BREG). John’s over 25 years of experience in law, real estate and M&A aligns with our strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining OmniTRAX, John served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT) from 2011 to 2018.  DCT was a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in the acquisition, ownership and development of warehouses throughout the United States.  He concluded his career at DCT by orchestrating the merger of the company into Prologis, Inc.  Mr. Spiegleman previously served as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of Apartment Investment and Management Company (Aimco) (NYSE:AIV) from 2006 to 2011. Aimco is a public REIT specializing in the ownership, management, development and redevelopment of multi-family assets. While at Aimco Mr. Spiegleman was responsible for managing the legal aspects of all company transactions.  Before joining Aimco, Mr. Spiegleman was Senior Vice President of Miller Global Properties from 1999 to 2006.  Miller Global Properties, a privately held company, is an owner, developer and operator of office and hotel properties in the United States and abroad.  While at Miller Global, Mr. Spiegleman served in both legal and business roles.

John, a Denver native, received his BA in economics from Denison University and his JD from the University of Colorado School of Law.

Andrea Malter serves as the Chief Human Resource Officer for OmniTRAX Inc.

Prior to joining OmniTRAX, Andrea spent two years consulting for OmniTRAX re-engineering business processes.  Prior to her affiliation with OmniTRAX, Andrea served as CFO for the Jesse White Foundation, a non-for profit in Illinois.  Andrea was also a VP of Finance for Robertshaw, Inc. a leading global design, engineering and manufacturing company in the white goods industry.  Prior to her time at Robertshaw, she held numerous positions in Finance across several industries/companies including: Invensys Controls a UK technology company, Continental AG, and Motorola Inc.

Andrea holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from the University of Illinois.  In addition, Andrea holds the designations of CPA, CMA, CGMA, and SHRM-CP.

Andrea grew up and spent most of her life in Chicago but has lived in Tianjin, China, worked for a year in Mexico and has residences in both Denver and Chicago.  Andrea enjoys traveling and is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Jeff Goutcher is joined OmniTRAX as Senior Vice President of Sales and reports to our Chief Commercial Officer.

Jeff joins us from Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, LLC (FGA) where he was the Director of Marketing & Sales.

Prior to working at FGA, Jeff worked at CSX Corporation for 22 years.  Jeff’s most recent title at CSX Transportation was Director of Utility Coal. Prior to this role, he led a team of Business Managers responsible for the Chemical and Petroleum market as Director of Sales.

Jeff has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas Arlington and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Wartburg College.

Brian joined OmniTRAX in March of 2021 as President for Winchester & Western Railroad before assuming his current role in June of 2021.

To OmniTRAX, Brian brings a wealth of knowledge to our organization with his vast experience in the Railroad industry. Prior to joining OmniTRAX, Brian was the Principal Consultant at Ward Rail & Transload Consulting where he advised clients in areas of transportation economics, negotiations, and project management. Prior to working at Ward Rail & Transload, Brian was Chief Executive Officer at Arrow Holdings, LLC, a bulk material rail transloading and rail car cleaning organization and President at TRANSFLO Terminal Services, CSX’s bulk material rail transloading organization, and Director of Sales & Marketing at CSX Transportation.

Brian has a Master’s Degree in Supply Chain Management from the University of Denver and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Wake Forest University.