We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
  • ::COVID-19 COVERAGE::
  • INDUSTRY PRESS ROOM
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • MEDIA FILE
  • Create Account
  • Sign In
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Free Newsletters
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • MATERIAL HANDLING
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • LIFT TRUCKS
  • PODCAST ETC.
    • Podcast
    • Blogs
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • Best Practices
      • Change Me
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Logistics Problem Solving
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Public Sector Logistics
      • Two Sides of the Logistics Coin
      • Submit your blog post
    • Events
    • White Papers
    • Industry Press Room
      • Upload Your News
    • New Products
      • Upload Your Product News
    • Conference Guides
    • Conference Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • DCV-TV
    • DCV-TV 1: News
    • DCV-TV 2: Case Studies
    • DCV-TV 3: Webcasts
    • DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
    • DCV-TV 5: Solution Profiles
    • MODEX 2020
    • Upload Your Video
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • MATERIAL HANDLING
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • LIFT TRUCKS
  • PODCAST ETC.
    • Podcast
    • Blogs
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • Best Practices
      • Change Me
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Logistics Problem Solving
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Public Sector Logistics
      • Two Sides of the Logistics Coin
      • Submit your blog post
    • Events
    • White Papers
    • Industry Press Room
      • Upload Your News
    • New Products
      • Upload Your Product News
    • Conference Guides
    • Conference Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • DCV-TV
    • DCV-TV 1: News
    • DCV-TV 2: Case Studies
    • DCV-TV 3: Webcasts
    • DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
    • DCV-TV 5: Solution Profiles
    • MODEX 2020
    • Upload Your Video
Home » Mongeau to step down as head of CN, leaving a powerful legacy to uphold
newsworthy

Mongeau to step down as head of CN, leaving a powerful legacy to uphold

June 7, 2016
DC Velocity Staff
No Comments

Claude Mongeau, who over more than 20 years helped transform Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) from a ward of the state to arguably the world's best-run railroad, will step down as CN's president and CEO at the end of the month due to health reasons, the company said today.

Mongeau, 54, returned to the helm at Canadian National in January following a six-month leave of absence in the second half of 2015, during which time he underwent surgery to have his larynx removed after doctors found a rare tumor on his throat. In a statement, Mongeau said he "gradually came to realize that it is difficult to fulfill such a demanding ?role" given his medical condition.

Montreal-based CN named Luc Jobin to succeed Mongeau as president and CEO, effective July 1. Jobin, 57, joined CN in 2009 as executive vice president and CFO after a long career in the food and tobacco industries. Jobin headed CN's leadership team during Mongeau's medical leave.

Mongeau, a Montreal native, joined Canadian National in 1994, the year before the formerly state-run railroad was privatized through an initial public offering. He served as vice president, strategic and financial planning, and as assistant vice president of corporate development before being named executive vice president and CFO in 2000. He was named president and CEO in October 2010 upon the retirement of the legendary E. Hunter Harrison.

CN is Canada's largest railway and operates the only Canadian transcontinental network. Through a series of U.S. rail acquisitions over the last 20 years, notably the Illinois Central (IC) Railroad in 1998 and the Wisconsin Central Transportation Co. in 2001, it operates an extensive north-south network from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as track running from Canadian maritimes into New England.

The IC purchase, which connected the already-existing lines from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a line running from Chicago to New Orleans, is considered to have changed CN's mindset from that of a Canadian east-west carrier to the attitude of a north-south continental railway. For example, CN today feeds Canadian raw-material exports into the U.S. Midwest and into Mexico through a partnership with Kansas City, Mo.-based Kansas City Southern Railway Co.

In 1999, CN and Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF Railway Co. announced plans to merge. However, the railroads subsequently abandoned the effort after they determined that new merger rules developed by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB), the federal agency that oversees U.S. railroads, were too onerous to comply with.

Since its privatization, CN has become almost legendary in its efficiency. In CN's first quarter, its operating ratio—a company's operating expenses as a percentage of revenue—came in at 58.9 percent, meaning that expenses accounted for less than 60 percent of its revenue, an impressive feat for an asset-based provider.

However, John G. Larkin, lead transport analyst for investment firm Stifel Financial Corp., said Mongeau's legacy goes far beyond CN's operating ratio. Mongeau's strengths lay in establishing strong collaborative customer relationships, Larkin said in an e-mail today. CN personnel were assigned to specific customers, and often reported for work at the customers' offices, Larkin said. The goal, the analyst said, was to "fine tune CN's operating interface with the customers, and to explore mutually beneficial growth opportunities."

Mongeau recognized that "a true growth company needs to grow volume and revenue and, by definition, couldn't drive the operating ratio down ad infinitum," Larkin said.

Transportation Rail
KEYWORDS BNSF Railway Co. Canadian National Railway
  • Related Articles

    Foltz to step down as head of Georgia Ports Authority; Lynch, current COO, to succeed him

    Gerkins to step down as Landstar president, CEO at end of year

    Rose to step down as BNSF CEO Jan. 1; Carl Ice, president and COO, takes CEO role

  • Related Events

    Three Strategies to Get Ahead of E-commerce Fulfillment Demands

Recent Articles by DC Velocity Staff

Report: Global TMS revenues to nearly double by 2025

E-commerce fulfillment squeezes retailers’ profit margins, Manhattan Associates says

Logistics-as-a-Service platform expands with $2.5 million funding round

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Most Popular Articles

  • IBM survey says digitalization trends will sweep trucking industry by 2030

  • Gartner survey signals increased investment in resilience over the next two years

  • What Level of Automation is Right for Your Warehouse?

  • Growing up … and up and up: interview with Sam Bertram

  • Old Dominion adds nine freight service centers to handle business growth

Now Playing on DCV-TV

D92f0dd1 a98c 434a 9e17 30b63ee72c90

Automated Pack-out and Print-Apply System for thredUP

DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
SilMan Industries designed and implemented a mixed polybag-carton system, including automated print and apply, in a new regional Fulfillment Center for thredUP, one of the world’s largest online resale platforms for women’s and kids’ apparel, shoes, and accessories.The Situation Secondhand clothing and online...

FEATURED WHITE PAPERS

  • Using innovation to manage peak seasonal demand

  • Time to rethink your lift truck power

  • Warehouse Management System Project Toolkit

  • Solving Talent Management Challenges Now and In the Future

View More

Subscribe to DC Velocity Magazine

GET YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • NEWSLETTERS
  • ADVERTISING
  • CUSTOMER CARE
  • CONTACT
  • ABOUT
  • STAFF
  • PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright ©2021. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing