Norfolk Southern shareholder Ancora’s nominees recommended by Glass Lewis

Norfolk Southern shareholder Ohio-based Ancora Holdings, which owns a large equity stake in Norfolk Southern, announced that proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis recommends the company’s shareholders vote to elect six dissident nominees on the Blue Proxy Card at the upcoming Annual Meeting of Shareholders on May 9. In particular, Glass Lewis recommends for the following Ancora nominees: Betsy Atkins, James Barber, Jr., William Clyburn, Jr., Sameh Fahmy, Gilbert Lamphere and Allison Landry. In its report, Glass Lewis noted the following regarding the need for change at Norfolk Southern: “…we believe Ancora has presented a compelling case for supporting a substantial overhaul of the Company’s current leadership.” “Based on our review, we believe the operating performance of the company has been consistently worse than its peers for an extended period.” “We are also inclined to agree with Ancora’s critique of the company’s current operating strategy as being one that relies on inherently incompatible railroading concepts.” “(I)t’s not readily evident to us the Company’s current leadership had built up a sufficiently positive track record such that investors might reasonably have the patience to allow management to implement a relatively novel operating strategy.” “We also believe that Ancora’s candidates for the Company’s top executive roles – James Barber, Jr. as CEO and Jamie Boychuk as COO – have compelling credentials and track records.”