RICHMOND, Va. — CSX Corp. is expected to choose rail veteran Michael J. Ward to succeed its current chairman should John W. Snow win approval as the nation’s next Treasury secretary, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Speculation mounted yesterday in industry circles about Ward’s expected selection as the next chairman and CEO of Richmond-based CSX.
Ward, 51, is the No. 2 executive at CSX. He was named president last summer after leading the company’s rail unit through eight straight quarters of profitability.
But no decision was made yesterday by the company’s board of directors during a regularly scheduled meeting at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, CSX spokesman Dan Murphy said.
Ward has been groomed for the past few years to step into the chairman’s shoes after Snow’s retirement, which had been expected in 2004.
The succession plan was derailed Monday when Snow, 63, was tapped by President Bush to replace ousted Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill.
Snow, CSX’s chairman and CEO, could leave as early as next month if approved for the Cabinet post by the Senate.
He has announced plans to retire if confirmed and not accept any future compensation or benefits in his employment contract.
Once Snow steps down, CSX is likely to close its headquarters in downtown Richmond, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The corporate staff has shrunk from more than 100 in the late 1990s to 15 people working at One James Center at 901 E. Cary St.
Ward works at the railroad’s operating center in Jacksonville, Fla. He has been running the day-to-day operation at CSX for the past two years.
“I think he’s pretty much running things as president,” said John Gallagher, who covers railroads for Traffic World, a trade journal for shippers.
“Snow was out of the picture” for daily operations, Gallagher said. “I don’t think things are going to change that much.”
Ward began his railroad career in 1977 as a research analyst for CSX predecessor Chessie System Railway in Baltimore.
He has been executive vice president of operations, manager of Conrail merger planning, head of the railroad’s coal business unit and chief financial officer.
Anthony Hatch, a rail industry consultant in New York, said CSX management touted an orderly succession during an analysts’ tour last summer.
“They said Mike Ward’s leading this effort to grow, and this is a team that will take CSX into the future,” Hatch said.