Kari Kirchhoefer

Union Pacific Railroad

Vice President-Premium, Marketing, and Sales

Kari Kirchhoefer was named Vice President – Premium in February 2021. In this role, she is responsible for leading the teams that provide a wide-range of intermodal and automotive transportation solutions for both domestic and international freight, which represents over $6.0 billion in annual revenue.

Most recently, Kirchhoefer had been Vice President - Loup Logistics, a position she held since September 2019. During her career, Kirchhoefer has served as Vice President – Industrial, Customer Care & Support, Vice President - Chemicals and president of the company's former subsidiary, Streamline. She has more than 29 years of experience with Union Pacific Railroad.

Kirchhoefer currently serves on the Salvation Army Advisory Board and was previously a board member for the Child Saving Institute. She is also a former executive director for Union Pacific's LEAD women's initiative.

Kari earned a bachelor's degree in Marketing from Northwest Missouri State University.

She and her husband, Dave, have two daughters.

Sessions With Kari Kirchhoefer

Tuesday, 27 September

  • 03:15pm - 03:45pm (PST) / 27/sep/2022 08:15 pm - 27/sep/2022 08:45 pm

    Intermodal II: Domestic Intermodal Service
    Putting domestic containers on the rail can save shippers a lot of money, if they can deal with service that has historically been less consistent than long-haul trucking. The US Class I railroads are working hard to provide a truck-like service to shippers, simplifying networks, especially on domestic intermodal, which generally provides faster end-to-end service than international intermodal. Nevertheless, there have been service disruptions this year in Dallas, Chicago, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle-Tacoma with strong demand and equipment supply challenges as container and chassis turns are well below pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, Schneider National will switch from BNSF Railway to Union Pacific Railroad in 2023, a reshuffling that could change how much business shippers do with top intermodal marketing companies (IMCs). This session will explore these issues and discuss how the US intermodal network will keep containers flowing as asset-based IMCs expand their container fleets. 
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