Change of Power at Union Pacific.

[Anonymous]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=2322665

[bobwilcox]

The UP now has a leader whose entire life has been spent in Omaha and his entire work experience has been in the finance department.  This is a first for the UP on both accounts.  It will be interesting to see what happens over the next decade.

[zardoz]

The UP now has a leader whose entire life has been spent in Omaha and his entire work experience has been in the finance department.  This is a first for the UP on both accounts.  It will be interesting to see what happens over the next decade.

Would that be "interesting" as in the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times"?

[tomikawaTT]

When the N&W did that, steam pulled a vanishing act.

Then Stuart Sanders went on to wreck Conrail.

It takes more than an MBA to manage a railroad - and bean-counting isn't the place to learn how.

Chuck

[garyla]

Time will tell, but Mr. Young already looks like a spectacular improvement over Davidson.Just for openers, though Young may not deserve all the credit:  1) UP has called off its legal dogs on the trademark controversy and is mending its fences, and 2) the company is now starting to make serious profits again.  In 2004, according to Trains magazine, UP's operating ratio was near 90%.  In 2006, it was below 80%.  Someone's minding the store better. 

 

Davidson is the guy on whose watch we saw 1) the bungled CNW merger, 2) the even more bungled SP merger, 3) the weird hiring shortfall of 2-to-3 years ago, 4) anemic profitability even during a spectacular business boom (see above), and 5) the bizarre, almost paranoid turn in public relations, highlighted by the licensing fiasco, the lawsuit against little SteamScenes, and even hostile relations with at least one of the non-profit historical societies which study UP predecessor companies.  Regarding the profitability, UP basically did a "first to worst" among the seven major rail carriers which now survive.  He may not be personally responsible for all this mess, but it happened while he was paid huge money as CEO.  The stockholders didn't get much for what they shelled out.

-garyla

 

 

[Murphy Siding]

Then Stuart Sanders went on to wreck Conrail.

Chuck

Stuart Saunders was at PennCentral, not Conrail.  PC was going to be a disaster no matter what.  What I've read about Saunders leads me to believe he was nothing to write home about, as far as management skills.  King Solomom couldn't have pulled of a success of the PennCentral.

[garyla]

Even with Al Perlman on the management team, Penn Central was a doomed enterprise, given the times and the regulatory climate.

Recommended reading on this subject is the book The Wreck of the Penn Central.