Alan Shaw

Meet Alan

Alan Shaw is a transformational Fortune 300 industrial executive, board member, and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Norfolk Southern Corporation. Comfortable with disruption, Alan has led at the intersection of complex operational turnarounds, financial performance, and cultural transformation. He is a multidimensional executive with experience across operations, marketing, finance, and engineering.

As CEO, Alan led a transportation and logistics company with approximately $13 billion in annual revenue, $43 billion in assets, and 20,000 employees. He guided the organization through strategic and cultural transformation at scale, strengthening leadership alignment, operational execution, safety performance, customer focus, employee engagement, and enterprise accountability.

His experience includes leading a complex, asset-intensive network where success depended on aligning employees, unions, customers, regulators, elected officials, shareholders, communities, the media, and the board. He has led through multiple corporate crises and periods of intense public, regulatory, labor, and investor scrutiny. During these periods, he maintained focus on culture, safety, service, growth, and long-term value creation while helping restore stakeholder trust and strengthen the company’s reputation. These efforts contributed to Norfolk Southern being recognized by Fortune as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

Earlier in his career, Alan served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, where he led marketing and sales, industrial development, customer service, and international business. He also served as Vice President of Intermodal Operations, overseeing network operations and gaining deep experience in the execution, safety, and performance of a complex transportation system. He brings deep experience in transportation and logistics, with broader exposure to manufacturing, commodities, energy, chemicals, industrial services, infrastructure, and other operationally complex sectors.

Alan is especially focused on helping organizations improve execution, align leadership teams, engage employees, manage risk, strengthen culture, and build resilient organizations capable of adapting through complexity and change. He has served on the boards of Norfolk Southern and TTX, including committee service. Alan earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and an MBA from Virginia Tech, completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School, and is a CFA charterholder.