(Reuters) – Norfolk Southern said late on Sunday it has opened an investigation into allegations of possible misconduct by Chief Executive Alan Shaw.
The company said its audit committee is working with a law firm “to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations.”
CNBC was the first to report, citing people familiar with the matter, that Shaw had an inappropriate working relationship.
Shaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.
In May, activist investor Ancora won three board seats at the rail operator but failed to oust the company's chief executive.
Ancora had proposed to investors that they oust Alan Shaw from the board and elect Jim Barber, UPS's former chief operating officer, to replace Shaw as CEO. They also proposed Jamie Boychuk to become chief operating officer.
Shaw joined the company in May 2022, replacing Jim Squires.
The hedge fund argued that new blood was needed to improve financial and operational metrics and said it would continue to hold the company accountable for any future rail accidents or underperformance.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based company reported second-quarter operating income of $3 billion, up 2% from a year ago and just shy of analysts' estimates of $3.04 billion.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
