Canadian National Railway (CNR:CA) has named Tracy Robinson as its new chief executive officer (CEO), ending a period of uncertainty over the leadership of one of North America’s largest railroads.
Robinson becomes one of the most prominent female executives in corporate Canada, the first woman to run the Montreal-based company. She spent 27 years at rival Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) and has been at Calgary’s TC Energy Corp. since 2014, where she was in charge of its Canadian natural gas pipelines.
The country’s largest railway also ended a dispute with activist shareholder TCI Fund Management, saying it will grant TCI two seats on its board of directors as part of a settlement that prevents a proxy fight. The directors will be named at a future date.
At TC Energy, Robinson was also president of Coastal GasLink, a $6.7 billion under-construction natural gas pipeline to connect natural gas fields in Western Canada with the country’s first LNG export project.
The CEO appointment comes after Canadian National Railway made a $30 billion U.S. takeover offer for Kansas City Southern (KCU) last year, trying to snatch it away from Canadian Pacific. The effort collapsed when U.S. regulators blocked a key provision in the proposed deal, but it still succeeded in forcing CP to pay billions more to win the prize.
The takeover play fueled TCI’s decision to try to force out CN Rail’s former CEO and change the company’s board. The investment firm said the bid was doomed to fail and exposed Canadian National to unacceptable financial risk.
Former CN Rail CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest announced his retirement in October.
Canadian National Railway beat expectations for its fourth quarter earnings Tuesday (January 25), making $1.71 per share. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $1.53.
