Norfolk Southern taps Mongeau for board seat

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) announced that Claude Mongeau has been elected as a director, effective Sept. 23.

Mongeau is the former president and chief executive officer of Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI). He will serve on the board’s compensation and finance and risk management committees as an independent director.

“We are excited and pleased to welcome Claude to the Norfolk Southern board. Claude’s deep knowledge and understanding of precision scheduled railroading will be invaluable as we continue to implement our PSR-based strategic plan to drive efficiencies, service, growth, and shareholder value. Claude brings hands-on experience in aligning PSR with a customer focus that promotes end-to-end supply chain performance and growth,” said chairman, president and CEO James A. Squires.

Mongeau is credited with implementing a “customer-centric version” of precision scheduled railroading (PSR) that resulted in rail service improvements while the head of Canadian National.  

In addition to leading Canadian National from 2010 to 2016, Mongeau held various roles in his 22-year career with the railroad including chief financial officer, vice president of strategic and financial planning, and assistant vice president corporate development. He also serves as a director on the boards of Calgary-based oil and natural gas company, Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD).

Some may view Mongeau’s addition to the Norfolk Southern board as an effort to meaningfully improve its PSR initiatives or to explore potential opportunities to partner with other Class I railroads as Canadian National has done recently.

Canadian National and CSX (NYSE: CSX) recently collaborated to offer a new intermodal service providing each with access to the others traditional ports of service. Additionally, Canadian National purchased a stretch of CSX’s “non-core” northeast rail line at the end of August.