Norfolk Southern announces firing of CEO Alan Shaw over workplace affair

Norfolk Southern has fired its chief executive officer over an affair with the company's legal chief, the controversial freight rail giant said Wednesday. In a press release, Norfolk Southern said Alan Shaw was fired “for cause” after an ethics investigation uncovered his “consensual relationship” with attorney Nabanita Nag, who was also fired. Mark George, the railroad's chief financial officer, was promoted to president and CEO in Shaw's place. “The board has full confidence in Mark and his ability to continue to meet our obligations to shareholders and other stakeholders,” said board chairman Claude Mongeau. Shaw became Norfolk Southern's CEO in May 2022 after working his way through the company for nearly 30 years after being hired as a cost systems analyst in 1994. The company's press release did not thank him for his decades there, nor did it include a statement from him. Shaw's two years at the helm of the company, one of the largest freight railroads in the country, were marked by chaos and disorder: he narrowly avoided a strike, survived a proxy war and had to deal with a serious derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.