CSX’s (NASDAQ: CSX) Ed Harris, an executive vice president with the railroad, will be retiring in August. CSX will fold the safety and facilities groups Harris oversaw into CSX’s operations group as his August 1 retirement date approaches.
Harris, a 50-year industry veteran, has been with CSX since January 2018, serving as executive vice president of operations before moving to his current role of executive vice president overseeing safety, performance metrics and operational planning.
The groups Harris managed will transition to the operations group, which is managed by Jamie Boychuk, executive vice president of operations. Boychuk took over Harris’ position in October 2019 when Harris transitioned to lead the safety and facilities groups.
Harris began his career in railroading in 1968 on the Illinois Central Railroad, which CN acquired in 1998. He served in various leadership roles throughout his career, including chief operations officer at Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) in 2010 to 2011. He was also a rail operations consultant and worked with CSX, CN, CP, Genesee & Wyoming, various rail shippers and Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment fund.
Harris’ background includes working with current CSX CEO Jim Foote and the late Hunter Harrison as they implemented the precision scheduled railroading (PSR) model at CN (NYSE: CNI), known also as Canadian National, according to his biography on the CSX website.
CSX adopted PSR in 2017 after Harrison became CEO in March of that year.
“I’ve been fortunate to have played a role in several successful transformations over the years, but this experience at CSX was by far the most rewarding and satisfying of my career and what I’m most proud of. It was an honor to work alongside the best railroaders in the industry and I wish Jim [Foote] and the entire leadership team all the success in the future,” Harris said.
