Amtrak's board has picked Alexander Kummant, a former senior executive at the Union Pacific Railroad, to be its new president and CEO. Kummant, whose appointment was announced Aug. 29, will begin his new job Sept. 12.

David J. Hughes, who has been Amtrak's interim president since November 2005, will remain with the railroad, "in a yet to be specified capacity," said the company, whose formal name is the National Railroad Passenger Corp. Hughes, formerly Amtrak's chief engineer, became interim president after the board dismissed David L. Gunn from the railroad's top job.

Kummant most recently was vice president and general manager of Carol Stream, Ill.-based Invensys Controls Americas. A subsdiary of Invensys Plc, London. In 2005 he was executive vice president and chief marketing officer of construction-equipment company Komatsu America Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill.

From 1999-2003 Kummant worked at the Union Pacific, as a regional vice president, vice president and general manager of industrial products and vice president for premium operations. He also spent seven years at Emerson Electric Co.