UPDATE: CSX Announces Saturday That Harrison Has Died
ORIGINAL STORY: CSX has announced Jim Foote is taking over as acting CEO while CEO Hunter Harrison is on medical leave.
The Jacksonville-based railroad didn't release details on Harrison's leave other than to say he has experienced "unexpected complications from a recent illness."
Harrison, who is 73, uses an oxygen tank.
“On behalf of the Board and the entire CSX family, I want to express that our thoughts are with Mr. Harrison and his family,” said CSX Chairman Edward J. Kelly III in a statement.
CSX held a conference call Friday morning to reassure investors after making the initial announcement Thursday.
“I have been following the CSX story very closely since January, but did not realize just how much progress Hunter and CSX’s able team have made replicating the transformation we effected at Canadian National some years ago,” Foote said in a statement. Before being appointed as the interim Chief Executive Officer Foote served as the Chief Operating Officer.
Harrison came in following former CEO Michael Ward’s retirement this past spring. Ward had originally planned to work through 2019, but he and some other executives left after a push to bring Harrison aboard by Paul Hilal's Mantle Ridge hedge fund.
CSX also went through a recent “involuntary separation with 1,000 workers,” the majority of which were in the Jacksonville corporate office and its subsidiaries earlier this year. In 2016, CSX cut 2,500 workers as coal shipping declined.
“I believe that the battleship has turned, the Precision Scheduled Railroading framework has been put into place, and the Company has amassed the critical talent – through education of the internal team and supplementation with a complement of strong PSR operating veterans and a strongly supportive Board,” said acting CEO Foote.
The Precision Scheduled Railroading framework, which aims to improve efficiency, has been Harrison’s signature initiative.
As this is written, Friday’s trading isn’t complete but at last check, CSX stock was trading down 7.5% percent at $53.02 a share.
You can see the latest CSX stock quote and a history of the stock here.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
