AHEAD OF THE TORCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing
- EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CO - HOST
Kelly is an award-winning filmmaker and digital marketing consultant with experience in filmmaking, strategic planning, brand development, grant writing, event coordination, customer experience, and placemaking.
A third-generation railroader, he has worked in various capacities for numerous rail preservation organizations, tourist railroads, short lines, and Class 1 railroads including the Ohio Central Railroad, South Central Florida Express, RJ Corman, Norfolk Southern, CSX, and others. His career has also seen stretches at Apple, NBC/Universal, CBS/Paramount, Sweetwater Sound, and as a film professor at Huntington University. In train service, Lynch has served as a fireman, conductor, and trainmaster.
Since 2007, Kelly has served on the board of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. As Vice President, he oversaw the first steam excursions operating in Chicago in over 30 years and more recently, he has recently developed the Indiana Rail Experience, a new tourist railroad enterprise connecting Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
Kelly is the Director of Marketing and Strategy for railroad contracting and consulting firms FMW Solutions and National Rail Consulting Group, whose clients include Norfolk Southern, Nashville Steam, Railroaders Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Steam Locomotive Trust, Colebrookdale Railroad, Iron Horse Society, Sugar Express, and 60 other organizations and railroad related businesses. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Rob Davis has been active in historic preservation for over 40 years. He is currently a principal/founder of the Railroad & Industrial Preservation Society, Inc. which is restoring Lehigh & New England locomotive #611. Rob founded Ahead of the Torch in 1992. Rob brings over 25 years of digital communications and marketing experience to AOTT.
In his profession, he is engaged as Chief of Digital Innovation at MSL Group, the PR arm of Publicis Groupe. Rob was previously Head of Digital/North America Innovation Lead at the legendary global advertising agency Ogilvy. Rob previously led the digital businesses for the Independent Film Channel and AMC TV networks, as well as running the experimental programming team at MTV Networks. Rob holds an MS from the Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University and a BS from the University of Scranton.
Railroad and industrial preservation has been a lifelong passion for Rob. He began with local preservation projects around his Jersey Shore hometown, and that interest blossomed when he left for college in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Living in one of the cradles of the American Industrial Revolution during a time when the physical destruction of past relics was rampant shaped Rob's views of preservation as an activist activity.
Rob's experience in railroad history and preservation includes:
Editor in Chief/Publisher, Ahead of the Torch (current)
Founder/Principal, Railroad & Industrial Preservation Society
Board of Directors, Project3713, a locomotive restoration partnership with the National Park Service (2011-2022)
Trustee, Garden State Central Model Railroad Club at the InfoAge Science & History Museums (current)
Vice President, Jersey Shore Commuters Club, operating a private railcar on the NJ Transit system
Volunteer, Steamtown National Historic Site
Motorman, Buckingham Valley Trolley Association
TV, Film & Media Railroad History Consultant & Writer
Job Titles:
- PRESERVATION CONSULTANT & CO - HOST
Thomas J. Gaffney has weathered a quarter-century of experience in the fields of antiques, collections management, education, industrial archaeology, museum administration, and his broad base of knowledge, connections, and Masters Degree in American Transportation History serves clients in the private and non-profit sector.
He has previously served as the Executive Director of the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan, Curator of the Port Huron Museum, a Director for Port Huron & Detroit Railroad Historical Society, and adjunct professor at Baker College.