Norfolk Southern said Thursday that its new CEO’s salary will jump to $1 million now that Mark George has been promoted from chief financial officer, and he will be eligible for a $2.25 million bonus and significant stock awards for performance.
George was previously making $675,000 as CFO, but he got the top job at the railroad Wednesday after Norfolk Southern’s board fired Alan Shaw for having an inappropriate consensual relationship with the chief legal officer.
The Atlanta-based railroad disclosed the details of George’s compensation in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Norfolk Southern said Shaw won’t receive any severance and will have to forfeit any outstanding stock awards because he was fired for cause.
Norfolk Southern has been at the center of a national examination of railroad safety ever since one of its trains derailed and caught fire in February 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. Half the town had to evacuate when officials decided to blow open five tank cars of vinyl chloride and burn the plastic ingredient inside generating a huge plume of thick, black smoke.
