Ewing Hunter Harrison (November 7, 1944 – December 16, 2017) was a railway executive who was the CEO of

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

(IC),

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(CN),

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

(CP), and

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merge ...

. He is known for introducing

precision scheduled railroading Precision railroading or precision scheduled railroading (PSR) is a concept in freight railroad operations pioneered by American railroad executive E. Hunter Harrison in 1993 and has since been adopted by nearly every North American Class I railro ...

to the companies he ran. He died on December 16, 2017, two days after taking medical leave from CSX.

Biography

Born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, in 1944, Harrison began his railroad career in 1964 when he worked as a carman-oiler for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway ("Frisco"), while attending

Memphis State University The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

. Harrison was later promoted to railroad operator with Frisco and, later, with

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

(BN) following that company's acquisition of Frisco in 1980. Harrison left BN in 1989 and secured a job with the executive team at the

(IC), first as vice-president and chief operating officer, culminating with his appointment as president and chief executive officer from 1993 to 1998. Following the acquisition of IC by CN in 1998, Harrison was appointed vice president and chief operating officer by CN. Upon the retirement of

Paul Tellier Paul Mathias Tellier, (born 1939) is a Canadian businessman and former public servant and lawyer. Biography Born in Joliette, Quebec, Tellier earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Ottawa and his law degree from the Universit ...

, he became president and chief executive officer of CN on January 1, 2003, until his retirement on December 31, 2009. During his time at CN, Harrison was named Railroader of the Year for 2002 by industry trade journal ''

Railway Age ''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine ...

'' as well as CEO of the Year for 2007 by

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

's "Report on Business". On April 29, 2009, CN announced the company's plan for succession in Harrison's position by appointing

Claude Mongeau Claude Mongeau is a Canadian railroad executive who served as the president (corporate title), president and chief executive officer of Canadian National Railway (CNR) from January 1, 2010, to July 1, 2016. He succeeded E. Hunter Harrison, Hunter ...

as his successor effective January 1, 2010. Following his time at CN, Harrison retired to his estate in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

where he raised and trained horses for show jumping. Bound by a non-competition clause with CN, Harrison maintained a low profile as a director for the

Belt Railway of Chicago The Belt Railway Company of Chicago , headquartered in Bedford Park, Illinois, is the largest switching terminal railroad in the United States. It is co-owned by the six Class I railroads of the United States — BNSF, Canadian National, ...

as well as Dynegy Holdings LLC. In fall 2011, Harrison was approached by the

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

Pershing Square Capital Management Pershing Square Capital Management is an American hedge fund management company founded and run by Bill Ackman, headquartered in New York City. Company history In 2004, Ackman started Pershing Square Capital Management with $54 million in fundi ...

led by activist investor

Bill Ackman William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach has made him ...

, who was undertaking a

proxy battle A proxy fight, proxy contest or proxy battle is an unfriendly contest for control over an organization. The event usually occurs when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the corporate governance, often focusing on dir ...

with the board of directors of CPR. Ackman had offered at that time to appoint Harrison as president and chief executive officer of CPR should his proxy battle in spring 2012 be successful, which would necessarily result in the termination of Fred Green as president and CEO. Ackman was ultimately successful in the proxy battle at the CPR's annual shareholder meeting on May 17, 2012. On June 29, 2012, Harrison was appointed president and CEO of CPR. CN halted nearly $40 million in benefits to be paid to Harrison after launching a lawsuit alleging he may have breached, or intended to breach, several confidentiality agreements with the railway dating back to his retirement in 2009. In the suit, CN's board of directors said it had grounds to believe Harrison may have violated his commitments to CN as part of Ackman's push to see Harrison replace Fred Green as CEO of Canadian Pacific. On January 18, 2017, Harrison resigned as CEO of CP Ltd. to join Paul Hilal in another freight rail management restructuring initiative at CSX Corp., a US-based freight rail company. On March 7, 2017, Harrison was named CEO of

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

. Harrison died on December 16, 2017, due to severe complications from a recent illness, two days after taking medical leave from CSX. He was 73 and survived by his wife, Jeannie, and two daughters, Elizabeth (Libby) Julo and Cayce Judge.

Biography

References

Further reading