Norfolk Southern will deliver long-term value to shareholders by becoming more customer-centric and operations-driven, President and CEO Alan H. Shaw said at the company’s annual meeting Thursday. 

“My first priority, and the top priority of every member of the Norfolk Southern team, is to restore service to the quality our customers expect and deserve. We have a great team and we’re taking the right steps: accelerating our new TOP|SPG operating plan and hiring the conductors we need to execute the plan reliably,” said Shaw.   

“Being customer-centric … means making it easier for our customers to do business with Norfolk Southern and delivering innovative solutions to help them compete and grow.

“Complementing our commitment to customer centricity is our focus on being operations-driven, which means that our success depends entirely on our ability to run a safe, reliable, and resilient railroad. Every department at Norfolk Southern is aligned…as we serve our customers.   

“Delivering safe, reliable and resilient service with competitive pricing, helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals, and making it easier for our customers to ship by rail will enable Norfolk Southern and our partners to capitalize on market conditions that remain favorable for truck to rail conversion,” said Shaw.

Shaw’s full remarks are posted on the Invest in NS section of the Norfolk Southern website under Presentations. In addition, a recording of the Annual Meeting will be posted within the next week to the Invest in NS section under Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

In official business, based on preliminary results, shareholders elected Amy E. Miles, former Chair and CEO of Regal Entertainment Group Inc., to serve as independent Chair of the Board for a one-year term expiring in 2023. Additionally, based on preliminary results, shareholders elected 13 directors for one-year terms expiring in 2023:

  • Thomas D. Bell, Jr., Chairman of Mesa Capital Partners
  • Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., President of Purdue University and former Governor of Indiana
  • Marcela E. Donadio, former Ernst & Young Partner and Americas oil and gas sector Leader
  • John C. Huffard, Jr., co-Founder of Tenable Network Security, Inc., and Tenable Holdings, Inc.
  • Christopher T. Jones, former Corporate Vice President and President of the Technology Services Sector of Northrop Grumman Corporation
  • Thomas C. Kelleher, Chairman of UBS and former President of Morgan Stanley
  • Steven F. Leer, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arch Coal, Inc.
  • Michael D. Lockhart, former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
  • Claude Mongeau, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian National Railway Company
  • Jennifer F. Scanlon, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of UL, Inc.
  • Alan H. Shaw, President and Chief Executive Officer of Norfolk Southern Corporation
  • James A. Squires, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Norfolk Southern Corporation
  • John R. Thompson, former Senior Vice President and General Manager of Best Buy.com LLC.            

In other preliminary results, shareholders ratified the appointment of KPMG LLP as independent auditors for 2022, approved an advisory resolution on the compensation of executive officers, and rejected a shareholder proposal regarding reducing the percentage of shareholders required to call a special meeting.