RAILROADED

Norfolk Southern Says It Fired CEO Alan Shaw Over Workplace Affair

Alan Shaw was terminated for cause after an ethics investigation found he’d engaged “in a consensual relationship with the company’s chief legal officer,” Norfolk Southern said.

Norfolk Southern fired its chief executive for having an affair with the company’s chief legal officer, the embattled freight railroad behemoth said on Wednesday. In a news release, Norfolk Southern said that Alan Shaw had been terminated “for cause” after an ethics investigation uncovered his “consensual relationship” with lawyer Nabanita Nag, who was also fired. Mark George, the railroad’s chief financial officer, was promoted to president and CEO in Shaw’s stead. “The Board has full confidence in Mark and his ability to continue delivering on our commitments to shareholders and other stakeholders,” said Claude Mongeau, chairman of the board. Shaw became Norfolk Southern’s CEO in May 2022 after nearly 30 years working his way up through the company, having been hired in 1994 as a cost systems analyst. The company’s news release did not thank him for his decades there, nor did it contain a statement from him. Shaw’s two years as head of the company, which represents one of the nation’s largest freight railroads, were marked by chaos and disarray, as he narrowly avoided a strike, weathered a proxy battle, and dealt with a major derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.