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Had Henry Posner III not chosen a life of railroads, he might be modeling Brooks Brothers suits in Gentleman's Quarterly. With the bearing of a military academy graduate, the win, body of a major league shortstop, and the tonsorial perfection of Cary Grant, Posner is an entrepreneur who just happens to prefer buying and improving railroads in the most improbable places.
Look his way-as almost everyone in a room eventually does-and he'll likely approach you, announcing, "My name is Henry Posner. I'm chairman of Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh and I'd like to talk to you about alternative models for rail freight privatization." Okay, he has a flaw. A one track-pardon the pun-mind. Railroads. More specifically, railroad garage sales. Iowa, Central America, South America, Europe-it doesn't matter. If there are two strips of high iron for sale, Posner finds his way there to haggle for possession as deftly as a Marrakech native at the bazaar.
What the belly-up Rock Island couldn't sustain between Chicago and Omaha, Posner does. What the governments of Guatemala and Argentina failed at doing, Posner excels.
Posner must be considered eccentric among his risk-averse former Princeton classmates who chose more sedate...