CSX Agrees to Hire Hunter Harrison as CEO.

[elleng]

'The industry veteran is offered a four-year contract as part of sweeping leadership changes at the railroad.

CSX Corp. has named Hunter Harrison as its next chief executive, giving the railroad veteran a four-year contract to slash costs and revamp one of the country’s biggest railways.

His appointment ends an unusual contest with an activist investor'>>>

https://www.wsj.com/articles/csx-agrees-to-hire-hunter-harrison-as-ceo-1488829040

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1. If you go in via the authors' Twitter feeds, you get 24 hours free access to TWSJ.

Jacquie McNish: @jacquiemcnish

Co-Author Losing The Signal: Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry, Wall Street Journal correspondent Canada, teacher, slow, grinding cyclist

CSX agrees to hire Hunter Harrison as CEO, setting stage for major shakeup at one of biggest railroads https://www.wsj.com/articles/csx-agrees-to-hire-hunter-harrison-as-ceo-1488829040 … via @WSJ

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Dave Benoit @DaveCBenoit

I cover activist investors for WSJ. The activists that fight companies, not climate change or governments. Well, sometimes governments.

CSX-Mantle Ridge reach a deal. Hunter Harrison could start as soon as this week. Hilal will be named vice chairman. w/ @jacquiemcnish

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Title in this morning's paper: "Activist Stages a Railway Coup." Front page, below the fold.

CSX Agrees to Hire Hunter Harrison as CEO

A rookie activist investor wins boardroom battle installing an industry veteran as part of sweeping changes at the railroad

By Jacquie McNish and David Benoit

Updated March 6, 2017 7:37 p.m. ET

After a boardroom battle that lasted less than two months, a rookie activist investor has upended management of CSX Corp., installing a 72-year-old industry maverick as chief executive with a mandate to slash costs and revamp one of the country’s biggest railways.

CSX said Monday it agreed to appoint Hunter Harrison, effective immediately. The decision ends an unusual contest with an activist investor who quickly parlayed Mr. Harrison’s popularity with Wall Street into sweeping leadership changes at CSX, which operates one of two major freight networks east of the Mississippi River.

Mr. Harrison’s success turning around other railways has earned him such a loyal following that news of his ambition to run CSX triggered a $10 billion surge in its share price in mid-January, even before his activist partner Mantle Ridge LP had a chance to detail plans to shake up management to the board or confirm the investment publicly. ... From the start, Mr. Harrison’s partnership with Mantle Ridge’s founder Paul Hilal drew the attention of the activist-investing world eager to see how far Mr. Harrison’s star could carry a newcomer with a stake of only 4.9% in CSX.
....

Even as CSX’s board negotiated with Mantle Ridge, the rail operator began making changes to slim down and shift to a more efficient rail network. The company said last month it would lay off up to 1,000 management employees, saving at least $175 million in annual costs. ... Last week, CSX said several longtime executives in its operating division would retire and it would reorganize the network around fewer corridors in an effort to eliminate costly and time consuming crew changes, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

—Paul Ziobro contributed to this article.

Write to Jacquie McNish at [e-mail] and David Benoit at [e-mail]

Full disclosure: I own shares of CSX. I do not own any CP.

[elleng]

2. Thanks!

I used to regulate both of them. I don't THINK I own either!