2/4/2013

Canadian Pacific Article
CN's Creel rejoins Harrison as Canadian Pacific's president, COO

Today, Canadian Pacific announced it appointed Keith Creel president and chief operating officer, effective Feb. 5. E. Hunter Harrison will remain chief executive officer.

Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jane O'Hagan, Senior VP-Operations Systems Scott MacDonald, SVP-Canadian Operations Guido De Ciccio and SVP-U.S. Operations Doug McFarlane will report to Creel, who most recently was EVP and COO at CN.

"Keith joins CP after a very successful operating career where he rose from a management trainee in the operations department at Burlington Northern in 1992 to becoming EVP and COO at CN in 2010," said Harrison — who worked with Creel at CN while Harrison served as the Class I's president and CEO from 2003 to 2009 — in a prepared statement. "I have worked with many talented operating people in this industry over the last four decades and Keith is by far one of the best young operating talents that I have ever seen. Canadian Pacific recently began its transformational journey to becoming the best railroad in North America, and we look forward to benefiting from Keith's strong leadership and operational expertise as we move forward."

Creel's other posts at CN included SVP of the Eastern Region, SVP of the Western Region and VP of the Prairie Division. At the Burlington Northern Railroad, he served stints as an intermodal ramp manager and trainmaster. Prior to joining CN in 2002, Creel held various positions at the Illinois Central Railroad, including trainmaster, director of corridor operations, district superintendent and general manager-Michigan Zone.

"I worked for Hunter for many years and am proud to be working alongside him once again. I am also proud to be leading an outstanding team in sales and marketing and operations that I know to be exceptionally talented railroaders," said Creel.

Shortly after CP unveiled Creel's appointment, CN announced it settled its differences with CP and Harrison concerning his hire as CP's top officer in June 2012. The settlement ends outstanding litigation between CN and CP before a federal court in Chicago.

As part of the settlement, CP officials agreed not to hire certain CN employees until Dec. 31, 2016. Other terms of the settlement remain confidential, CN officials said in a prepared statement.

"CN has a deep bench of executive talent and will be announcing shortly a replacement to Keith Creel as executive vice president and chief operating officer," they said.