Oscar Del Cueto, president of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) of Mexico , received the recognition of “Logistics Entrepreneur of the Year” , awarded by Grupo T21 during the event of The 100+ Influencers of transportation and logistics in Mexico .
Del Cueto has been one of the pillars of the railway sector , treasuring various achievements during his career of more than 30 years, among them, the recent inauguration of the second border railway bridge between Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, just to mention one.
Francisco Fabila, president of the Mexican Railway Association (AMF) , who received this same recognition in 2024, said that Del Cueto has been an extraordinary businessman, leader and strategist , as well as a good mentor and coach .
“With more than 30 years of experience, he has shaped the railway sector as we know it today in a very important way. As Director of Operations, he was an extraordinary leader, he operated from Monterrey, from the northeast network, he operated just over 20 trains on the border. But something that characterizes him is how people followed him, he always has a smile for everyone, an open door,” he said.
Attended by top industry representatives, Oscar Del Cueto, visibly moved, thanked this recognition , which he said is the culmination of several years of work.
“Being the entrepreneur of the year is not achieved by one person but by a team of people who, over many years, have allowed us to work and take the name of the company to many places. I have had the opportunity to work in the operational and administrative areas. I started in the communications and public relations area, in the mechanical and transportation areas, as Director of Operations, and finally today I am in charge of managing the company in Mexico,” he said.
A life “on wheels of steel”
The railway industry has been Oscar Del Cueto’s home for more than 30 years, although his passion for this sector began in his childhood, with his father being the driving force behind this feeling due to his work in this transport, which over the years led him to make it not only part of his personal life, but also of his professional career.
A year later, he became the president of CPKC de México, the company that was born with the merger in 2023 of Canadian Pacific and KCS, the first railway network that connects the United States, Mexico and Canada, in a direct, seamless line, benefiting from the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
Among his various achievements at the helm of CPKC Mexico, he has inaugurated the “Patrick J. Ottensmeyer” International Railway Bridge,an infrastructure that, after 19 months of work, will double the company’s capacity on the border, specifically at the point between Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, strengthening trade exchange between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The bridge is named for Patrick J. Ottensmeyer, the company’s late president and CEO, who was instrumental in consolidating the railroad industry in North America. This new construction will double the growth in freight capacity across the border at North America’s largest international trade gateway.
The railroad and Americold also established a strategic collaboration in June 2023 to optimize temperature-controlled logistics. The new facilities are scheduled to open in mid-2025 and will support both importers and exporters of temperature-sensitive foods between Mexico and the United States.
He headlined the Final Spike Steam Tour, the journey of Empress locomotive 2816 across the country, which began in Calgary on April 24, 2024 and passed through cities such as Moose Jaw, Minot, St. Paul, Franklin Park, Davenport, Kansas City, Shreveport, Laredo, Mexico City and Winnipeg.
The railway company will invest 240 million dollars in Mexico during 2025 , resources that will be directed to various projects, including railway bypasses, throughout its infrastructure in Monterrey, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí and Celaya, Guanajuato.
In addition to projects such as the Celaya Bypass, which seeks to strengthen infrastructure and have greater agility in the transfer of goods heading from the central part of the country and from the Lázaro Cárdenas port to the United States and Canada.
It should be remembered that from 2020 to 2024, Del Cueto also chaired the AMF . He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ferrocarril y Terminal Ferroviaria del Valle de México (Ferrovalle) and a full member of the Steering Committee of the Ferrovalle Railway Terminal. He is also a member of the Mexican Foreign Trade Council of the Northeast (Comce Noreste) , and, in January 2021, he was appointed a member of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham) .
He holds a degree in Communications and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Monterrey. He also received a Certificate in the Railroad Administration Program from the University of Michigan.
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