Eastern Railroad Discussion > Norfolk Southern announces CEO transition

Mr. Squires will be leaving NS in May, 2022.  Mr. Alan Shaw to assume CEO Duties.  

Mr. Shaw is a Wick Moorman appointee and previously served as Executive VP of Marketing and Sales.  He has been with NS since 1994.  

Maybe this is the beginning of restoring customer service to NS and improving overall service.  Hopefully PSR will be kicked to the curb soon.

Here's the full story:  http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/news/norfolk-southern-announces-ceo-transition.html

VR Out

PSR will not be kicked to the curb....they will now redouble their efforts to extend it. 

CEO transitions can be messy. The people who were passed over may look elsewhere. Mr Squires' allies may choose to take a package, etc.

Still, Mr Shaw likely took the brunt of unhappy shipper calls in his area. He knows the score.

Posted from Android

Perhaps it's more pressure from Wall Street to squeeze blood out of the turnip and grow the business at the same time???

That reminds me of a company I worked for years ago that was a vertically integrated supplier to the parent company. We were pressured to make money but at the same time provide product to the parent company cheap. (We did supply a competitor too, which I thought was weird.) My CPA beancounter, boss decided that the little people were making too much money with the current piece rate system. I was assigned to do time study so he could change that.  One of the shop workers threatened to kill me and another, who was my relative, would never talk to me again. I found another job within 6 months,  and I don't know if my boss fudged my numbers and changed the piece rate after I left. But the shop eventually went out of business anyway. Of course, he landed another job in the same loser industry but not with the same employer.

Victor



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/21 08:35 by wabash2800.

Anyone else see the irony in the press release talking about how “rock solid” NS is under Squires at the same time the railroad is melting down and coming under scrutiny from the STB?

I believe press releases must be composed in a cow pasture…

CW

Posted from iPhone

I have no illusions that the new CEO is suddenly going to turn around Norfolk Southern, but I sure don't think he could do any worse of a job. From the moment Squires first came on the scene as the heir apparent to Moorman, I was completely unimpressed with him.  I think he would have been a poor CEO under ANY circumstances, but PSR just magnified his real shortcomings. If you are hellbent on instituting the insanity that is PSR, at least put people in charge that understands where you can make cuts without completely losing focus on where the money is actually made and what is needed to make it. .  That means operating and sales types. 

Juniata Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone else see the irony in the press release'
> talking about how “rock solid” NS is under
> Squires at the same time the railroad is melting
> down and coming under scrutiny from the STB?
>
> I believe press releases must be composed in a cow
> pasture…

'“Jim is retiring at the top of his game,” said Steven F. Leer, Norfolk Southern’s lead independent director'

Yep, just in time before the house of cards falls down.

What will NS do with Cindy?

How much of the mess falls on her, or will she be a scapegoat  over policies from the top?

Sounds like he is retiring, but in May with the transition immediate.
If he is at the top of his game, he must not have had a very good game.

Hard to say regarding Cindy, but she did not suceed him. Not sure what to read into that one.


 

Giving up the President role now, the CEO role goes in 2022.

Posted from Android

It's hard to know what goes on inside the boadroom, but this has all the signs of a board deciding that the CEO has to go. Squires is only 59. Yeah, he's still top dog for a few months but I bet you'll rarely see him in the office until then. As for PSR, there will never be an announcement from NS that PSR is being undone. Any improvements or adjustments will be made with little fanfare. 

The interesting thing to me is that Ed Elkins, a former locomotive engineer, will be the number 2 man. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/21 11:57 by ctillnc.

So, there are  both a CEO (chief executive officer)  and president in the same corporation? (And a chairman of the board, as usual).

Victor

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Giving up the President role now, the CEO role
> goes in 2022.
>
> Posted from Android

Right now NS stock is up $10.07  to $279.13   

Scapegoat time.  

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, there are  both a CEO (chief executive
> officer)  and president in the same corporation?
> (And a chairman of the board, as usual).
>
> Victor
>

Although governance experts feel the three jobs (CEO, Prez, and Chair) should be held by different people, many firms give one person all three roles.

TO folks will be unhappy to learn that as late as the 1960s, most Board members were outsiders. Usually Wall Street bankers.

But only one Pres or CEO (not both) and a seperate COB was more common when I was active in the corporate world. As you know, often the COB is the retired president, owner or CEO.  With two top execs, that's a lot of money and perks at the top.

Victor



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/21 14:39 by wabash2800.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So, there are  both a CEO (chief executive
> > officer)  and president in the same
> corporation?
> > (And a chairman of the board, as usual).
> >
> > Victor
> >
>
> Although governance experts feel the three jobs
> (CEO, Prez, and Chair) should be held by different
> people, many firms give one person all three
> roles.
>
> TO folks will be unhappy to learn that as late as
> the 1960s, most Board members were outsiders.
> Usually Wall Street bankers.

Yeah, take a look at the Penn Central board.  A bunch of bankers the railroad owed a LOT of money to, and many of the rest were customers of the railroad.  Does ANYONE want to try to make the case that these guys were always acting in the best interest of the RAILROAD and not their own?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/21 17:59 by junctiontower.

junctiontower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
(SNIP)
>
> Yeah, take a look at thre Penn Central board.  A
> bunch of bankers the railroad owed a LOT of money
> to, and many of the rest were customers of the
> railroad.  Does ANYONE want to try to make the
> case that these guys were always acting in the
> best interest of the RAILROAD and not their own?

Noted, excellent point.  The bankers represented the folks who loaned money to the PennCentral and hoped to get it back.  The share owners seemed to be an afterthought in that highly regulated period.

The Board has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the interests of the share owners. Period.  Other, less important obligations include shippers, local towns, employees, lenders, etc.  Even though it doesn't usually work out that way

We have entered a new era of Robber Barons of the 19th and 20th centuries, but at least the past ones had people who knew how to run a railroad and to build upon them, not downsize them. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We have entered a new era of Robber Barons of the
> 19th and 20th centuries, but at least the past
> ones had people who knew how to run a railroad and
> to build upon them, not downsize them. 

Not just railroads.  There's a whole business buying old drug patents, jacking up the prices for standard medicines like insulin, and making people pay through the nose.  No new research. The battle in Congress over controlling prices of older and newer drugs is one expression of this.  Who can pay $50,000 a month for a new drug?