Canadian National has appointed Tracy Robinson as its next President & Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Jean-Jacques Ruest, who is to retire from the CN Board on February 28, but will continue in an advisory role until March 31 to ensure a seamless transition.

Robinson joins CN from TC Energy, where she is currently Executive Vice-President, as well as serving as President of Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines and Coastal GasLink. She previously worked at Canadian Pacific for 27 years, holding executive roles in Commercial, Operations and Finance, and has more than 35 years of experience of operational management, strategy development and project execution.

Robinson will join the CN board alongside the former Premier of Québec, Jean Charest, who has been appointed as an independent director. Meanwhile existing director Shauneen Bruder has been named Vice-Chair of the board.

CN has also entered into a Resolution Agreement with investors CIFF Capital and TCI, under which two more two independent directors will be appointed by the time of CN’s 2022 Annual General Meeting. In return, CIFF and TCI have dropped their request for an independent shareholders’ meeting in March.

‘We are thrilled to have Tracy join CN as President & CEO and are confident that CN has the right team to lead it into the next phase of growth’, said Robert Pace, Chair of the CN Board of Directors. ‘Additionally, we are pleased to welcome Jean to the Board now and look forward to welcoming two additional directors with railroad experience. Our strategy is well-underway, and we have made significant progress towards building the railway of the future.’

‘This is a transformational period at CN, and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead’, said Robinson. ‘I look forward to working closely with CN’s extremely talented railroaders, board, and management team as we take CN to the next level of performance and industry leadership.’