Awards

IU Indianapolis Spirit of Philanthropy Award - 2002

About Thomas G. Hoback

Thomas Hoback is the founder of The Indiana Rail Road Company, an Indianapolis-based 500-mile regional railroad with routes from Chicago to Indianapolis, Louisville and central Illinois. Over 28 years, Hoback served as the president and chief executive officer of the company.

A native of Peoria, Illinois, Hoback attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in transportation and economics. In 2012, he received an honorary Doctorate of Engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, for revitalizing Indiana Rail Road's infrastructure. During his early career, he held senior marketing positions for major rail carriers in San Francisco and Chicago.

In 1986 he founded Indiana Rail Road, whose 38-mile original route between Indianapolis and Newton, IL, he acquired from the Illinois Central Railroad. The railroad had been abandoned and closed due to track defects. Despite long odds and doubts that a turnaround could happen, Hoback and his original team of 16 employees went about restoring the railroad and customer confidence. Today's INRD moves Indiana commerce to and from Asia and points all over North America, and is considered a leader in safety, technology and marketing while providing nearly 200 well-paying jobs. In May 2006, the company acquired the Indiana assets of Canadian Pacific Railway, extending its route system to the Chicago gateway and Ohio River ports at Louisville, Kentucky. The company's 27-year history has seen sustained year-over-year growth of nearly 13 percent and an increase in annual gross ton-miles of nearly 3,400 percent.

Elected to the Indiana Historical Society board of trustees in 2002, Hoback completed a three-year term as Chairman in 2011. He has a long-standing association with the Society, having co-founded the Midwest Railroad Research Center in 1997. He is also active on other boards and advisory committees, including the board of directors of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, and the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and serves on the editorial advisory board for Railroad History. In the early 2000s, he took a leadership role with the Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, in its major project to fund and publish the new “Encyclopedia of North American Railroads.”