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Shaw fired as head of Norfolk Southern

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Shaw fired as head of Norfolk Southern
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, September 12, 2024 4:32 AM

Initial story from Railway Age, but now behind a paywall.

Someone raised the question last week about whether Shaw had had an 'inappropriate relationship' (with the chief legal officer, who has also been fired).  It took just a few days for the Board to investigate, and the result is that Shaw has been thrown out on his ear, summarily replaced by Mark George.

The usual boilerplate about 'left to pursue other opportunities' or 'decided to spend more time with family' were not invoked.  At least one press source was surprised at the absence of any statement from NS thanking Shaw for his 30 years of service.

I see surprisingly little discussion about the somewhat peculiar 'whistleblowing'.  Several sources indicate the claims about 'inappropriate relationship' were made directly to media and not the company, with that accounting for the speed and apparent severity of the action -- I suppose it will come out in the wash how this happened.

The Chief Legal Officer's bio page was still 'up' at NS as of 5am on September 12th.  Here is a recent article from the NS Newsroom with some details about her tenure and responsibilities:

https://norfolksouthern.mediaroom.com/Atlanta-Business-Chronicle-names-Nabanita-Nag-as-a-2024-Corporate-Counsel-Award-Honoree

I don't want to say that this will go down the 'memory hole'... but read it quick if you're interested.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, September 12, 2024 8:24 AM

Unusual in both being high level officials.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, September 12, 2024 9:24 AM

Interestingly enough Lady Firestorm saw this last night on MSN, the Norfolk-Southern connection caught her attention immediately.

(She's still angry at N-S for cancelling the steam program in 1994 but that's another story.  [:(!)  

Anyway, her supposition was Ms. Nag beat out someone else for the CLO's position due to her (ahem) connection, most likely the one who didn't get the slot was the "whistleblower."  She's probably right. 

I also have to wonder if this was the excuse to get rid of Shaw considering it's been seemingly one black after another for N-S ever since East Palestine?   Seriously, who really cares about any hanky-panky going on in the C-Suites as long as it's consensual?  Stuff like this has been going on for decades.  

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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, September 12, 2024 5:27 PM

Discussions elsewhere, on and off line, have many thinking that Ancora has a hand in this. That's because of the timing and the way things were leaked. 

Has someone elsewhere pointed out, leaking such information is also an ethics violation. 

Jeff

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, September 12, 2024 5:47 PM

jeffhergert
Discussions elsewhere, on and off line, have many thinking that Ancora has a hand in this. That's because of the timing and the way things were leaked. 

Has someone elsewhere pointed out, leaking such information is also an ethics violation. 

Jeff

Sounds highly likely - Board level ethics in hostile takeover attempts are routinely thrown out with the bathwater by all parties involved.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Ulrich on Sunday, September 15, 2024 12:42 PM

Black and white.. he violated company policy..senior people and leaders are held to a higher standard i.e. if the top dog is allowed to get away with it then why can't I? Apart from that, I feel bad for Mr. Shaw and Ms.Nag.. life is complicated. 

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Posted by jeffhergert on Sunday, September 15, 2024 3:09 PM

Ulrich

Black and white.. he violated company policy..senior people and leaders are held to a higher standard i.e. if the top dog is allowed to get away with it then why can't I? Apart from that, I feel bad for Mr. Shaw and Ms.Nag.. life is complicated. 

 

It should work that way, but often in the real world it doesn't always work that way.  It seems like ethics and virtue is found when it is most favorable and convenient for others to be appalled at the violations. 

On another site, someone posted that the relationship had been on going for three years.  If true, I doubt the secrecy was all that secret. I rather doubt that whomever spilled the beans to begin the investigation had just found out about it. 

It's just too convenient for a group that made a few inroads trying to do a hostile take over.

Jeff

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, September 15, 2024 4:40 PM

It often depends on whose ox is gored...

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