Commentary: Giving Shurstad his due

   Last month I wrote about Tiger Cool Express and several other providers of temperature-controlled transport (“Refrigerated rail heats up,” pages 34-42). Buried in the story is a brief mention of Tom Shurstad’s role as chief commercial officer of the Tiger Cool Express startup and his previous experience as head of Pacer Stacktrain and then president of Pacer International. Shurstad left Pacer in late 2007.
   I wrote his departure coincided with recent profit declines.
   I did some checking since and want to set the record straight, because Shurstad is well regarded in the industry for his business acumen.
   I can’t parse out his impact on the parent company’s earnings from the financial statements during his short time as president. But during the four or five years he was responsible for the wholesale, intermodal division — the company’s bread and butter — he actually tripled profits to about $130 million by the time he left.
   His departure, according to trustworthy sources that used to work at Pacer, had to do with philosophical differences about how to run Pacer and keep it profitable, not his performance.

This article was published in the May 2014 issue of American Shipper.