CPKC Earns Supplier of the Year Award, Presents Top Railroader Honor
GM selected 92 suppliers across 12 countries for Supplier of the Year in 2025, including for the first time CPKC. For more than 30 years, the awards have recognized top suppliers, “underscoring their work to cultivate strong relationships with GM” and honoring their “achievements in safety, innovation, or resilience or for special projects in which they went above and beyond,” according to the automaker.
“Prior to the CPKC combination two years ago, Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern each benefitted from strong automotive business originations in Southern Ontario and Mexico respectively, but limited access to end markets,” CPKC reported as part of its award announcement on April 9. “As a result of the combination, CPKC can now offer automotive customers such as GM the unique ability to create a closed-loop service solution between these two regions, and key end-market destinations in between. Combining our superior access to automotive assembly plants, with automotive compounds located across our network, CPKC offers its customers the opportunity to place automotive equipment in a closed-loop supply chain—improving asset utilization, speed to market and consistency of service. Our access to key origins and destinations, investment in dedicated automotive rail equipment, and the elimination of empty movements and interchanges with other railroads, allows our customers to benefit from efficiencies that were previously unavailable.”
CPKC’s Joe Skinner, Assistant Vice President, Automotive, and Sean Scully, Director Automotive Assets and Compound Operations, represented the railroad’s commercial and operations teams and accepted the award at GM’s annual Supplier of the Year awards event held April 8 in Arizona.
“It was an honor to represent CPKC and all the work our teams have done to strengthen our relationship with GM,” Skinner said.
The award is “a meaningful recognition from a voice of a customer that means a tremendous amount to our team and certainly illustrates the strategic value of strategic partnerships,” CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel noted in January during the railroad’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call, shortly after receiving notification of the honor. “Credit to the commercial team and the operating team that have marketed and executed this industry-changing solution delivering the service that’s unparalleled in the industry.” Creel noted that in his more than three decades of railroading, he had never heard of a railroad receiving the supplier award from GM, according to CPKC.
In announcing the awards on GM’s website, Jeff Morrison, GM’s Global Chief Procurement Officer, thanked and congratulated this year’s winners, which also included BASF Coatings, Cooper Standard, Nucor, and Walbridge. “Together, we’re leading with agility and efficiency while driving innovation and manufacturing excellence,” he wrote.
CPKC earlier this month announced via social media that its 2025 Railroader of the Year is Brett Reynolds, Track Maintenance Foreman.
“With 36 years of service, Brett exemplifies what it means to be a railroader—resilient, committed and dependable in all conditions,” the railroad reported in its online posts, which included a special video profiling the award honoree (watch above). “Working through snow, wind, and sub-zero temperatures on the Maple Creek, Sask. subdivision, he leads by example to keep trains moving safely.”
“Brett is 7/24/365-type railroader,” noted CPKC Vice President Engineering Tom Bourgonje in the video. “He shows up and it doesn’t matter how difficult the situation is, he just does an outstanding job making sure that we do things right and that everybody goes home safe.”
“When we’re facing the kind of weather that we face in Canada, we need people that are not going to panic, that aren’t going to let their emotions get the better of them, and are able to just get trains back up and rolling, and that’s the kind of guy Brett is,” added CPKC Supervisor Track Inspection Geoff Tedrick.
A proud family man, Reynolds has earned respect for his integrity and leadership—always putting safety first and mentors the next generation of railroaders, according to CPKC.
“It’s a craft to be a railroader, and Brett’s the guy … that’s put extra time into learning the crafts,” CPKC Director Track and Structures Nick Whittle noted in the video. “He’s very positive. He’s got a lot of passion for the railway—that’s why he’s still here.”
“It takes a special breed to work the railroad,” Brett Reynolds told CPKC. “At 3:00 a.m., going out in the winter to change tracks is tough. The wind will cut right through you and it requires a certain toughness and grit to get out and keep trains moving.”
