Experienced safety leader to implement safety management system

Amtrak has named Ken Hylander Executive Vice President and Chief Safety Officer. Hylander most recently served as Chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation and previously served as the Chief Safety Officer at Delta Air Lines. He will report directly to President and CEO Richard Anderson and be responsible for implementing a proven Safety Management System (SMS) at Amtrak.

“We are improving safety at Amtrak. Keeping our customers and employees safe is our most important responsibility and a high quality Safety Management System is a requirement for Amtrak,” said Anderson. “Ken is a recognized leader in the implementation and operation of SMS, and his experience will be instrumental in helping build our safety culture.”

SMS is a proactive risk management system which builds on predictive safety management methods. SMS has been a cornerstone of improving safety in many industries, including aviation, health care and energy. Recently, the NTSB recommended that Amtrak implement a SMS Program. Amtrak endorses this NTSB recommendation.

Hylander has more than three decades of experience in the aviation industry. He retired as a senior vice president from Delta Air Lines in 2014, where he successfully oversaw the SMS implementation at Delta and managed the occupational, operating safety, security, quality and environmental compliance programs.

He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Flight Safety Foundation and is an independent member of the Board of Directors of Monroe Energy in Trainer, Pennsylvania, an oil refinery subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

Hylander was Northwest Airlines’ Chief Safety Officer prior to the airline’s merger with Delta. Before joining Northwest in 1997 as the Vice President of Quality, Reliability and Engineering, Hylander spent nearly 17 years at United Airlines where he held a variety of engineering, quality assurance, and operations management positions.

(Source: Amtrak)