Reading and Northern Railroad announces that Dennis Shaffer has been named the vice president of business development.

Shaffer has a broad range of executive experience in the railroad and distribution business, having held senior level positions in operations, marketing, finance, and planning for several railroads; as well as hands-on experience in organizing and starting new railroad and distribution ventures. As part of the railroad's management team Shaffer will focus on new business development and development of long term strategic initiatives.He started his railroad career in 1967 as a yard clerk for the Reading Railroad. After earning a bachelor's degree in business logistics from Penn State University in 1971, he joined the Rock Island Railroad as a cost analyst.Over the years Shaffer worked at the Delaware and Hudson Railroad as assistant vice president of pricing and marketing; assisted in the start-up of the Iowa Interstate Railroad; and the start-up of the Minneapolis based Twin Cities and Western Railroad, where he became that railroad's first president.Shaffer returned to the area in 1995 to become vice president of marketing for the North Shore Railroad system of short line railroads in Northumberland.Most recently, he served as general manager of the Norfolk Southern Railroad's Thoroughbred Bulk Transfer Terminal in Sunbury.For 10 years Shaffer served as a director on the SEDA COG Joint Rail Authority.He and his wife, Cynthia, reside in Lewisburg.