Leadership Views: Mike O'Malley, DCLI

Name: Mike O'Malley

Position: Senior VP for Government & Public Relations and Human Resources

Years on the Board: Less than 1

You are the newest member of the TSCI Advisory board, and we are thrilled to have you at the table.  What brought you to serve on the board?

DCLI has been a longtime supporter of the University of Denver and its Transportation & Supply Chain Institute.  Our Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Houfek has served on the Board for many years and several of our employees have participated in the Institute’s degree programs, benefiting tremendously from the experience.  On a more personal level, I have always heard great things about the Institute and am very excited to get more involved in supporting its mission of educating future leaders in the transportation industry.

What did you do before your current role at DCLI?

My career has always focused on transportation.  I spent several years in government roles early on, working for the Governor of my home state of Illinois and then for the U.S. Department of Transportation.  Since then, I have had the privilege of working in the private sector for CSX, the Railway Supply Institute and DCLI.  My responsibilities have often involved public policy and how it affects various segments of the transportation sector as well as people leadership and relationship-building.

Supply Chain is a hot topic today.  After the world felt the impact of the pandemic, it seems there is a need for many to understand the industry and how leading companies are planning for the future.  How has the supply chain disruption impacted your work and your decisions?  

First, the supply chain congestion of the last two years has required a ton of creativity among DCLI’s employees.  For example, right now we have about 30,000 more marine chassis operating on the street compared to pre-COVID levels and our out-of-service percentage for that fleet is below 2% (and all-time record).  To accomplish this, our team has had to really step up, working weekends, collaborating closely with our suppliers, and doing everything possible to serve our customers.  The supply chain congestion has also made chassis a much more prominent topic among policymakers and the media, so we have done a lot of outreach and communication to help them understand what we’re doing to address these issues and ensure containerized goods get to their final destination.