Team Member Spotlight: Cameron Ginther

Cameron Ginther and his wife, Marriah, welcomed their daughter to the family in October 2020. Cameron Ginther has had a unique career with Watco so far. He’s originally from western Kansas but attended Pittsburg State University to play football for the Gorillas. Between his junior and senior years, Ginther joined the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad’s Maintenance of Way team during the summer. During his senior year, he stayed on and helped in the Pittsburg, Kansas, warehouse when he wasn’t busy with football.

“The guy who recruited me to come play football at Pitt State had joined Watco,” said Ginther. “That’s Lance Cullen (People Services Manager), and he ended up recruiting me to come to Watco as well. He helped me get my foot in the door.”

After graduating in May 2018, Ginther wasn’t sure what to do, but he learned about a management trainee opportunity with Watco Terminal & Port Services (WTPS). It was based out of the Amory, Mississippi, terminal and provided a chance to learn more about the transportation industry.

“Coming out of college, I thought I’d go to work at a railroad site. I learned about an opportunity at Amory and got to talking with the manager. It sounded like a great opportunity, and I’ve been learning ever since,” said Ginther.

Amory does a little bit of everything. They work with rail, barging, trucking, storage, and more, so it was a great place for Ginther to learn the aspects of WTPS’s business. His supervisors, the WTPS AVP’s and VP’s, also wanted him exposed to other operations as much as possible, so he also spent time at other terminals in the area. He worked at the Columbus, Miss., location; at terminals in Decatur, Guntersville and Birmingham in Alabama; and in Osceola, Arkansas.

“Amory is kind a Swiss Army knife. You’ve got all different sorts of stuff going on down there. You’ve got barge switching with tugboats, and there’s petcoke and pellets.,” Ginther said. “I was able to do a lot of stuff, work on a lot of really interesting projects, and learn a lot of things from a lot of valuable and seasoned team members at these terminals.”

Ginther received an opportunity to move back a little closer to home in July 2019, when he joined the Tulsa Port of Catoosa team in Oklahoma. That team specializes in moving steel products and large, dimensional cargo by barge, rail, and truck. He helps the team with most aspects of loading railcars, working with the barges, and other loadouts. He also covers safety procedures, works with Terminal manager Keith Bowman on the location’s financials, and recently started working with the terminal’s customer service representatives to learn how they interact with and help our customers.

“In the big scope of it all, I just try to learn every facet of what everyone does at the places I’ve been,” Ginther said. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can, so I can be as helpful as I can where I end up. This is very unique, it’s different, and it’s fun. I’ve been blessed to have this opportunity.”

Ginther’s unique career path through Watco has taken him to many places in the Watco network. He says the leadership and the team members he’s met along the way have been the best part of it.

“The leadership that I’ve had throughout this whole experience has been great. Starting with Lance and moving on from there, my mentors and my leaders along the way have been excellent,” Ginther said. “The places I’ve been embody the Watco environment and the Watco culture, and they just do a great job of getting the job done and providing safe service to our customers. It’s all interesting to me, and it’s been really interesting to see all this different stuff and apply what I’ve learned. It’s an adventure, and it’s been a blast.”

When he’s not at one of Watco’s terminals, Ginther enjoys spending time with family. He and his wife, Marriah, welcomed a daughter in October 2020, and they spend a lot of time with her watching her grow. And he says they often visit his parents in Kansas and Marriah’s parents in Missouri.

“Family’s very important,” Ginther said. “I also liked to hunt in high school. I haven’t had a lot of time between football, work, and now our daughter, but hopefully, I can get back into it at some point.”