James Landavazo is Manager of Agricultural Marketing for BNSF Railway. He works with internal and external stakeholders on the development, implementation, and execution of marketing strategies utilizing current market information, competitive and economic conditions, and innovative programs to create growth for agricultural customers and BNSF Railway. James has 19 years of service with BNSF Railway and has held various positions in Operations, Intermodal, Agricultural Commodities, and Economic Development. The variety of positions have exposed him to various aspects of business within the rail industry. During his time at BNSF, James has been recognized with multiple BNSF Achievement Awards for his involvement in facility development. He has been an active member of ARDA since 2018. James received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Kansas and his Master Business Administration in Strategic Management from the University of North Texas.

Melanie has been with CSX Transportation for 18 years, holding various roles within the Real Estate Department, and currently manages a team responsible for overseeing office and ground leases as well as public agency projects providing easements to government entities and developers for their public projects.

She also plays an integral role on the real estate team ensuring the transition from Oracle to SAP and iCertis fully cover the needs and requirements for the Real Estate Department during the design, buildout, testing, and implementation.

She has served as Co-Chair of the Asian Professionals for Excellence (APEX) Business Resource Group for the past several years and actively promotes diversity and supports Asian professionals within the CSX organization.

Damon Gomez is a Bartlett & West rail solution consultant with 26 years of experience with railroad real estate and associated processes. He is committed to helping the rail industry leverage technology to improve the permitting process. Damon is the lead developer of RailPermitting.com, a web-based application process for railroad permits. This application reducing overall cycle times, improved communication and provided both applicant and railroad better visibility into the process. Damon also manages a team focused on real estate record management and research. His years of experience helps ensure that real estate customers, both internal and external, receive the most accurate information possible.

David LaPlante is a Real Estate-Director-Special and Public Projects-for Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in his 13th year as a proud railroader! In his current role, David is responsible for three bodies of work, including third-party Public Projects and UP’s Mineral Rights and Commercial Signboard portfolios and two awesome teams of UP managers and consultants.

In his Public Projects role, David and his team manage the real estate acquisition and contract drafting for more than 3500+ public infrastructure projects impacting UP property in all 23 states in which UP operates. These third-party public projects include new construction, reconstruction and maintenance of the approximate 40,000 at-grade and grade-separated road crossings across the UP network from more than 10,000 large vehicular and pedestrian grade-separated over and underpass crossings to the more than 20,000 at-grade public road crossings along both signalized and unsignalized. These projects also affect more than 10,000 private at-grade and grade-separated private road crossings, thousands of levee closure structures and embankment facilities and related large drainage facilities across the UP network, as well as the more complicated Rail over Rail grade-separated crossings including pedestrian high speed rail projects. David’s team of 3 works daily with multiple internal UP depts from Engineering, Public Affairs, Law, Network Planning, and Marketing & Sales and with more than 50 UP Engineering consultants across the UP system.

In the Mineral Rights role, David’s team manages all the UP subsurface mineral rights portfolio across the UP network of 23 states including but not limited to oil and gas rights, brine, water, gravel and even lithium. As a significant Mineral Rights owner, UP enjoys significant lease and royalty revenues annually. David’s team of two works with multiple external consultants to effectively manage UP’s mineral rights portfolio and grow its revenues.

David’s Public Projects’ team also manages UP’s commercial signboard portfolio which includes more than 2600 signboard structures in all 23 states in which UP operates. UP enjoys lease revenue generation as a landowner from the gross signboard ad revenues generated from the UP-signboard portfolio across the 23 statewide UP network. In the last several years, UP has been engaged in a successful initiative to digitize a select portion of the UP-signboard portfolio. David’s team works closely with its external signboard portfolio manager, Clear Channel Outdoor, to effectively manage the large UP signboard portfolio.

Before his tenure at UP, David practiced law in a large commercial litigation firm with more than 500 attorneys worldwide and he also practiced in the non-profit sphere as a civil rights/constitutional lawyer. David continues to use his legal skills in assisting UP in-house counsel in managing condemnations from third-party public agencies across the UP network and as serving as an expert witness for UP in active litigation regarding Real Estate and Contract drafting issues.

David also served UP 2 years as the President of the UP’s 2nd largest ERG (Employee Resource Group) UP Vets, which serves the more than 6000 veterans working at Union Pacific across the UP network. David served in the US Navy on the USS Independence CV-62 aircraft carrier overseas in the Persian Gulf during Operation Southern Watch at the tail end of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s.

UP published a write up on David’s role and UP Vets that is attached below. Read the UP article

David’s pride and joy is his family, which includes his wife and best friend of 25 years, Edie, and his awesome 11 kiddos ages 19 months to 23 years of age.