Jaime Peters Earns Railroad Industry Award

Alumna Fondly Recalls Her Creighton EducatioN

When Jamie Wewel Peters, BSBA’05, MBA’10, donned a blazer, complete with a lapel pin, picked up her briefcase and ridiculously oversized cell phone, grabbed her plastic jack-o’-lantern, and headed out for a productive night of trick-or-treating, she knew her costume would one day be her work uniform. For as long as she could remember, Peters wanted a business career.

A photo of Peters as a miniature businesswoman from that Halloween sits on her desk at Union Pacific headquarters. On challenging days, she says, looking at the image of herself as a little girl reminds her to take a step back to look at the bigger picture.

“When I do that, I am reminded about how I am being called by God to use my talents,” Peters says.

Peters was named a Fast Tracker—10 under 40 by Railway Age, a rail transport industry journal. Railway Age honors rising stars in the industry each year. Peters and her fellow honorees were recognized at the annual Railroader of Year Dinner in March at the Union League Club of Chicago.

“The award was not one that I accept on a personal basis. It is an acknowledgement of all the teams that I have worked on that produced great results. It is a reflection of our leadership teams that allowed all of us to try new things, fail, and try again. It is the result of challenging the status quo, respectfully, but with authentic intention to make things better,” says Peters.

Union Pacific nominated Peters for the award. She has been with the railroad for nearly 14 years, serving in numerous marketing and sales capacities and working with a variety of industries – renewables, grain products, energy and chemicals. Currently, she is senior director of carrier relations with Loup, a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of Union Pacific. As such, she leads the carrier procurement team, which manages all the trucking companies that perform first-and last-mile deliveries from the rail origin and destination points in North America.

Though she is employed at a Fortune 500 company, working at Loup is closer to being with a small firm. As a member of the leadership team, she has a hand in all areas of its business, including strategy, IT, brand development and external communications.

The experience reminds Peters of the days she spent in high school and on college breaks working in her family-owned retail store, where she sat in on supplier demos, helped with purchasing, assisted in accounting and occasionally helped in the warehouse.

“I learned to appreciate the complexities of running a business, having the right people in the right roles; the need for controls, process improvements, team building; and how to be a servant leader,” Peters says.

Peters looks back at her Creighton years fondly – from the support system, she says, that was “deeply ingrained” into the culture to the ’80s jams “prank calls” blaring through dorm room landline phones. She was also humbled and grateful to receive the Mary Lucretia and Sarah Emily Creighton Award, which is presented annually to a faculty, staff or student who serves as a role model of accomplishment for women. Highly engaged as an undergraduate student, she was a resident advisor and eventually assistant resident director, studied abroad, belonged to a sorority, ran the inaugural Creighton Business Symposium, volunteered, and attended the Sunday night candlelight mass.

Peters admits to being “probably too active.” But all her extracurricular commitments taught her lifelong lessons, such as the importance of surrounding yourself with quality, supportive people, and relying on a strong faith to get you through challenging times. And she learned to ask a lot of questions.

“I consistently challenge the way things are being done. I look at each person I interact with and try to understand them, as a person, and what drives their point of view. I sincerely want to serve those with whom I work. If you can focus on serving others in all areas of your life, you will be serving God,” says Peters. “This is the Jesuit way.”