Across Europe, the Far East, even Africa there is a growing web of rail that zips people along at speeds only imagined in this country. China, for example, operates the Shanghai Maglev, a passenger train that ferries riders from station to station at speeds nearing 300 miles per hour.
While trains like it are a pipedream in America, you can bet that if and when they become a reality, Kari Gonzales will be involved. Until then, Gonzales, who will receive the 2024 Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year Award, will stay busy calling the shots at the Pueblo-based MxV Rail. MxV is one of the world’s premier operations for testing, development and deployment of current and future rail technology.
Born in Walsenburg but raised in Pueblo, Gonzales was the kid who always did well. Her competitive nature in athletics marked her as something special. “I was fast,” she demurred. She starred in basketball and softball for her Pueblo South teams. But she was even better in the classroom, and it didn’t stop there.
While it wasn’t that long ago that she was in high school, mentors for young girls, especially Latinas with a natural gift for math and science were not always easy to find and too often, not even sought out. Also, said Gonzales, “STEM,” a pipeline for students attracted to science, technology, engineering and math, “was non-existent.” But that did not stand in the way of her testing the STEM waters.
“My first exposure was in my sophomore or junior year,” the affable Gonzales remembered. But first blush turned serious. “I fell in love with chemistry.” Without knowing it, chemistry, the study of the behavior of matter, would lock her into a lifelong dalliance in the sciences.
Her ability to so easily grasp what often scares off so many others caught the eye of a teacher who mentioned a summer engineering camp to her. “Do you think you would like to do this,” he asked, explaining the program. She jumped at the chance and that summer at the University of Missouri-Rolla she met and connected with “fellow nerds,” just as scientifically curious.
But it wasn’t just academics and athletics that made college an automatic choice. It was what her parents, Roy and Barbara Gonzales, had preached from early on, that education meant opportunity. Their sermon paid off with a scholarship to Colorado School of Mines, one of the nation’s and world’s preeminent institutions in the sciences.
While Gonzales did fine in the classroom and sports—a four-year starter in softball—she wasn’t sure Mines was for her. “It was not easy at Mines,” she said. “I came home every single weekend.” After year two, she considered transferring; her parents urged caution. “Don’t make any rash decisions,” they said. She listened. Mines did its part, too. She found support and “started coming home less,” ultimately leaving Mines with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a career “.320 batting average” for the Orediggers.
Fast forward, Gonzales found herself getting internships that turned into jobs and promotions. For more than a decade, she hopscotched around the industry learning rail from top to bottom before returning to Pueblo and crossing paths with another ‘railroad’ woman who saw a young woman with ‘it’.
“About 2015 or ’16,” said Gonzales, she was called in to the CEO’s office. “She asked if I had my MBA.” The degree was the only thing missing on an otherwise platinum résumé and the chance for an even steeper assent up the ladder.
She returned to school, Denver’s Regis University, and got it. With the degree came another promotion and in 2021, she was named interim CEO, formally named full-time later that year. “The Board and I knew she was the only choice,” said American Association of Railroads president and CEO, Ian Jefferies.
The same year, under Gonzales leadership, MxV relocated more than $100 million dollars in assets to the new test facility supporting all phases of rail systems.
Gonzales ‘Business Leader of the Year,’ award is no surprise to those in her industry. She has authored more than 25 technical publications and in 2023 was named Railway Women’s Railway Woman of the Year.
While the rail industry knows well about Pueblo and MxV—the name is a nod to momentum and ‘Mass x Velocity’—in Colorado it may not be nearly as well known. But for more than half a century, Pueblo has played a key role in the advancement of rail science.
Today it is a vital hub for rail, science and testing of all modes of rail transportation. But, said Gonzales, before anyone asks, there are no plans to test ‘bullet’ trains that now course through Europe, China and Japan.
“High speed rail in the U.S. is a unique challenge because of the expanse of our nation,” said Gonzales. High speed trains serving other places don’t have the same considerations. Still, the idea of a 280-mph train ride, minus turbulence, while inviting, is somewhere beyond the horizon. Still, said Gonzales, “I believe our industry will continue to seek opportunities to improve ridership and offerings for passenger trains in the future.”
Gonzales resides in Pueblo with her husband, also a Mines graduate and engineer at MxV, and their two children. No surprise, her children inherited her athletic genes. Her son is a baseball player, her daughter a dancer. They, however, have broken the Pueblo South line of succession and attend rival school, Pueblo Central.
