Mr. Lester is an industry leader in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management within the global commodity markets with experience across all different industries within the transportation sector. He is skilled in the commercial development, marketing, valuation, financial management, and operations of terminal, warehousing, rail, and road infrastructure across the North American transportation network.

His most recent position was with Watco Companies as Vice President of Sales and Marketing – Railroads and was responsible for leading a team of commercial managers with $300M in annual revenue across 30 short line railroads and industrial switching sites. During his time in this role, he directed Watco’s largest rail acquisition and joint venture, deployed over $50 million in capital improvement projects focused on customer driven growth, and was instrumental in increasing the size of the organic customer network and integrated supply chains.

Prior to his role with the rail group, Mr. Lester was Vice President of Commercial for Watco Terminals and Ports encompassing four divisions spanning 55 terminals, both inland rivers and coastal markets, generating $175M in annual revenue. During his time in with the Terminal and Ports divisions, he led the largest independent terminal acquisition at Watco and was instrumental in integrating terminal and rail infrastructure across multiple geographies in supporting customer growth plans. During his time with the Terminal and Port Group, Mr. Lester was responsible for over $100M in capital growth projects, acquisitions, and growth opportunities across a multiple different sectors and industries.

Previous to Watco, Mr. Lester lead commercial development efforts for Kinder Morgan focusing on in the Mid-South Region encompassing bulk, break bulk, and liquid terminals. Preceding his move to the commercial team, Mr. Lester was a Terminal Manger across multiple facilities encompassing bulk, break bulk, and liquid operations and was instrumental in the development of brownfield projects. Before joining Kinder Morgan, Mr. Lester was an Infantry Officer in the United States Marine Corps serving in both active and reserve components for seven years.