.His ouster follows two challenging years in the top job as well as just times after the business's board introduced it was exploring him for declared ethical lapses.The Atlanta-based railway stated Shaw had an improper unanimous relationship along with Norfolk Southern's primary lawful officer, who was actually additionally terminated. Norfolk Southern ensured Principal Financial Police officer Spot George to be the railway's following CEO.Shaw was actually leading Norfolk Southern in February 2023 when some of its learns thwarted, blew hazardous chemicals and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, the worst railroad calamity in the last many years. After that, activist financier Ancora Holdings attempted to take command of the railroad earlier this year as well as fire Shaw.He weathered legislative hearings and also tough community appointments after the East Palestine derailment, while promising to make Norfolk Southern the "gold criterion for safety" in the market. He also managed to urge investors not to support most of Ancora's board candidates. Three of its candidates carried out gain chairs on the railroad's board, but that wasn't good enough to offer it control.The derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border caused the nation to re-examine railway security and also led lawmakers as well as regulators to require reforms. However those propositions have actually mainly delayed, and also the field has actually created just marginal changes since the derailment, including putting in extra trackside sensors to find overheating bearings like the one that created the East Palestine crash.The unsatisfactory financial results Norfolk Southern delivered after the derailment, combined along with inquiries about Shaw's strategy of maintaining much more employees available in the course of a recession, made the railroad ready for tension coming from an investor like Ancora. Norfolk Southern's profits have regularly lagged behind the various other significant railways that more boldy taken on the lean operating version that has actually ended up being the industry requirement.