.His ouster happens after 2 difficult years in the leading task and only times after the company's board declared it was actually investigating him for declared moral lapses.The Atlanta-based railroad mentioned Shaw had an unsuitable consensual relationship along with Norfolk Southern's chief legal policeman, who was actually additionally terminated. Norfolk Southern promoted Principal Financial Police officer Mark George to become the railroad's upcoming CEO.Shaw was leading Norfolk Southern in February 2023 when one of its own trains wrecked, spilled dangerous chemicals and also ignited in East Palestine, Ohio, the worst railroad disaster in the last years. Then, activist financier Ancora Holdings tried to take control of the railway previously this year and fire Shaw.He survived legislative hearings and also complicated area conferences after the East Palestine derailment, while assuring to make Norfolk Southern the "gold criterion for safety" in the market. He additionally took care of to encourage investors not to support the majority of Ancora's panel nominees. Three of its candidates did gain seats on the railroad's panel, yet that had not been good enough to provide it control.The derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border motivated the nation to re-examine railroad security and led legislators as well as regulatory authorities to call for reforms. However those plans have actually largely delayed, as well as the sector has actually made simply marginal modifications given that the derailment, including mounting a lot more trackside detectors to find overheating bearings like the one that resulted in the East Palestine crash.The unsatisfactory financial end results Norfolk Southern delivered after the derailment, integrated with questions concerning Shaw's method of always keeping much more workers accessible during a slump, created the railway ripe for tension from a capitalist like Ancora. Norfolk Southern's profits have actually consistently hung back the various other significant railroads that even more strongly taken on the healthy operating model that has become the business criterion.