Ancora issues letter to shareholder on Norfolk Southern COO Orr

Ancora Holdings Group, which owns a large equity stake in Norfolk Southern Corporation, issued the below letter to fellow shareholders regarding the Board of Directors’ apparent failures of diligence and poor judgment in appointing John Orr as COO. “Unfortunately, the Board and CEO Alan Shaw continue to take actions that place their self-preservation ahead of our shared goal. The most recent example of this is their decision to enter into a costly and opaque agreement to extricate John Orr from Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited and make him the third COO in two and a half years under Mr. Shaw… Here are just a few of the key points you need to know about this latest failure of governance: The Board’s reactive process for hiring a COO was run from a position of weakness and did not even include a discussion with our proposed candidate… Based on Norfolk Southern’s own disclosures and statements regarding the importance of the Meridian Speedway and Terminal, we estimate the undisclosed consideration paid by the Company to hire Mr. Orr… The Board and Mr. Shaw have failed to disclose all of the relevant details about Norfolk Southern’s agreement with CPKC… The Board did not aggressively search for or hire a COO with important experience at an Eastern Class I railroad, but rather one of convenience with ties to current director Claude Mongeau… The Board did not hire a COO with expertise in Precision Scheduled Railroading implementations; Orr has been accused of abusive behavior and serious misconduct in the workplace… Concerns about Mr. Orr’s workplace behavior at Canadian National Railway Compan should have been known to the Board based on our private warning… The only industry endorsements for Mr. Orr since his appointment as COO have come from Mr. Mongeau and individuals at CPK.