Henry Posner III
American transport executive and investor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Posner III is an American transport executive and investor working in the field of rail transport.
- transport executive
- investor
Posner received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Princeton University in 1977, and received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982.[6][7][8]
In 2025, Posner was inducted into the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Hall of Fame, alongside Ronald Batory and the late Earl Durden.[9]
Career
During the 1970s Posner started selling Amtrak passenger tickets.[10] Summer employment during university included proofreading timetables for the Official Railway Guide and an internship at Rock Island Railroad.[10]
During a summer job working at Pennsylvania Truck Lines (part of Conrail), Posner was working for Anne Molley.[10]
After graduating from Princeton University Posner worked as a trainmaster (conductor) at Conrail in New York City and in Detroit.[10]
As of December 2014[update], Posner was chair of Railroad Development Corporation, chair of Hamburg-Köln-Express; chair of RegioRail in France, and vice chairman of The Hawthorne Group.[11][12]
Personal life
Posner's grandfather Henry Posner Sr. was born in Warsaw, Poland and emigrated to the United States in c.1905,[13] aged seventeen.[14] Posner's parents Henry Posner Jr. and Helen MacMurdo Posner were married in 1953.[15] Henry Posner III married Anne Molley in 1982.[10] As of 2015[update], Posner III continued to live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[16]
From 1998 onwards, Posner served as a trustee of the Winchester Thurston School, additionally serving as president for four years.[4]
In May 2014, Posner spoke at the International Transport Forum at the need for cooperation as well as competition within rail transport in Europe.[17]
Since 2017, Posner has been an adjunct instructor at Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), teaching the course "The American Railroad-Decline and Renaissance in the Era of Deregulation".[7] In the course Posner shares eccentric stories of his time working in the railroad industry. In 2021 Posner hired two students from the course to facilitate work on a battery-operated Vivarail D-Train imported from the United Kingdom for the "Pop-up Metro" project.[18]
In February 2022, Posner briefly returned to front line service, crewing and interpreting on board a refugee rescue train operated by RDC Deutschland between Frankfurt (Oder) station and Hannover Messe station in Germany, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6][19][20]
In mid-2022 the Posner Foundation renewed its yearly grant funding to Operation Lifesaver for work towards increasing safety at level crossings.[21]
Publications
Posner's photography archive is held by the Center for Railroad Photography and Art.[10] Other interviews and presentations:
- Posner, Henry III (2009). Posner RFF interview. Réseau ferré de France Seminar (in French and English). Paris – via Youtube.
- Posner, Henry III (2012-04-13). Telling stories. Conversations About Photography. Lake Forest College: Center for Railroad Photography & Art. Retrieved 2025-05-25 – via Youtube.
- Posner, Henry III (2022-04-07). Kornhauser, Alain; Fishkin, Fred (eds.). Providing mobility to Ukrainian refugees (offset 01:24). Smart Driving Cars. Retrieved 2025-05-25.
- Posner, Henry III (2022-04-22). Johnson, Bret (ed.). Sandhouse Rail Group: Ukraine's Railway War: If you can't send ammunition, give them a ride. McCormick School of Engineering (offset 02:45). Northwestern University – via Youtube.
- Posner, Henry III (2024-05-11). Keynote Address (offset 01:53). Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society Annual Meeting. Railroaders Memorial Museum, Altoona, Pennsylvania: Russell Sharp. Retrieved 2025-05-25 – via Youtube.
- Posner, Ida; Posner, Henry III (2025-04-11). Henry Posner III - ASLRRA 2025 Short Line Industry Hall of Fame Inductee. American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. Retrieved 2025-05-25 – via Youtube.
- Posner, Ida; Posner, Henry III (2025-11-18). Bajeux-Besnainou, Isabelle (ed.). Ida Posner & Henry Posner III, Railroad Development Corporation. Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship & Tepper School of Business. Family Business Leadership Series. Carnegie Mellon University (published 2025-12-01). Retrieved 2026-02-01 – via Youtube.