(The following story by Tom Shean appeared on The Virginian-Pilot website on March 25, 2009.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. boosted the salaries of several senior executives, but the compensation for some, including its chief executive, declined last year because their stock-related awards fell in value, the railroad said Tuesday in a regulatory filing.
The Norfolk-based company announced separately that Stephen C. Tobias, its vice chairman and chief operating officer, will retire at the end of the March. Tobias, who joined the company in 1969 as a junior engineer, was recognized by the industry magazine Railway Age as Railroader of the Year in 2008.
Mark D. Manion, a 34-year veteran of rail operations, will become executive vice president and succeed Tobias as chief operating officer on April 1.
Norfolk Southern also said that Marta R. Stewart had been named vice president and treasurer as of April 1. She will succeed William J. Romig, who will retire at the end of March after 32 years with the company.
In a proxy statement for its upcoming annual meeting, Norfolk Southern said compensation for its chairman, president and CEO, Wick Moorman, fell 2 percent to $14.23 million despite increases in his salary and non-equity incentive compensation.
Moorman’s salary rose by $150,000 last year to $950,000, while his pay from a non-equity incentive plan was $1.76 million, or more than double the year-earlier amount, the statement said.
However, the value of his compensation from stock and option awards fell 12 percent to $9.52 million, according to the proxy statement. The decline was because of accounting rules and the way the company had to recognize the expense of these awards, said Frank Brown, a Norfolk Southern spokesman.
Moorman, 57, has been Norfolk Southern’s chairman since February 2006 and its CEO since November 2005.
The proxy statement said the latest figures for executives’ salaries and pay from a non-equity incentive plan included deferred compensation from 2006 and 2007. The compensation amounts also included changes in values of their pensions, other deferred compensation and perquisites such as using the company’s aircraft.
Tobias ranked second among the company’s executives in compensation last year. His compensation for 2008 rose 12 percent to $6.78 million, which included a $50,000 increase in salary to $650,000.
Norfolk Southern reported in January that its net income climbed 17 percent last year to $1.7 billion and earnings per share were up 23 percent to $4.52.
Its railway operating revenues rose 13 percent to $10.7 billion.
On Tuesday, Norfolk Southern’s shares rose 86 cents in heavy trading to close at $34.21. During the past year, its shares had been as high as $75.53 in July and as low as $26.69 earlier this month.
Norfolk Southern’s annual meeting of shareholders will be held May 14 at the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg.