Employees receive top BNSF honor for making safety a priority for all
By MIKE PAGEL
Staff Writer
A highlight of BNSF’s Employees of the Year ceremony is celebrating our Safety Employees of the Year, one of our highest honors. For 2025, we recognized three outstanding leaders who are modeling the way in safety across our major teams, including:
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Bob Courteau for the mechanical team, which maintains our locomotives and freight cars
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Matt Oldham (pictured above) for the engineering team, which maintains our track, structures and signal systems
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Jakub Szyzdek for the transportation team, which operates our trains, yards, terminals and intermodal hubs.
These three joined other employees from across our system on April 14 in Fort Worth, Texas, to be honored for their outstanding contributions to the company’s success last year.
Each of the honorees is making a significant impact and helping BNSF move toward an accident- and injury-free workplace. Here are their stories.
Bob Courteau
Safety Assistant Courteau is well known for blending technical expertise with a coach’s mindset to inspire safety. He drove safety improvements at our Minneapolis freight car shop through hands-on training, workspace enhancements and by demonstrating appreciation for teammates.
At La Crosse, Wisconsin, Courteau partnered with an engineering team to address a safety exposure. His quick escalation and coordination led to an immediate mitigation that created a safer work environment for everyone on site.
His leadership extends well beyond daily work. He co‑chairs our systemwide mechanical safety team as well as other safety-related committees. He also mentors new safety assistants, leads sub‑committees, conducts site visits and supports teams across all nine mechanical locations.
Matt Oldham
For more than 20 years, Matt Oldham has been a steady presence for our engineering department and currently serves as a section foreman based in Childress, Texas.
Oldham and his team maintain and repair a nearly 220-mile stretch of mainline track between Wichita Falls and Amarillo, Texas. According to coworkers, Oldham brings energy and positivity each day, leading, coaching and jumping in to perform any task needed to get the work done safely.
Known for adding humor to his safety briefings, he also makes a point to ask his team each morning, “What do you need to be successful today?”
The value of Oldham’s leadership is evident in his crew’s safety success with a current streak of more than 2,300 days without a single injury.
Jakub Szyzdek
Shaped by years of service in the U.S. Marines, Szyzdek exhibits a level of leadership, accountability and innovation that has elevated safety and performance across our Chicago Division.
Under his guidance, our Corwith, Illinois, intermodal team has achieved exceptional results, including zero reportable injuries and zero human factor incidents within the transportation work group in 2025. This accomplishment is even more remarkable given a combined workforce of more than 400.
Szyzdek pairs his standard for operational excellence with creative engagement. He deployed AI technology to develop an innovative safety program that delivers timely safety messages and celebrates fellow teammates on TV monitors throughout the terminal.
His charismatic personality and accessibility foster trust and good communication — two key elements to safety success.
Congratulations and thank you to our 2025 Safety Employees of the Year and our Employees of the Year honorees.
