Michael J. Ward
Born
Michael John Ward

(1950-09-02) September 2, 1950
Baltimore, Maryland
EducationUniversity of Maryland (BBA, 1972)
Harvard Business School (MBA, 1976)
OccupationRailroad executive
Known forChairman and CEO of CSX Corporation
Notes

Michael J. Ward was the Chairman and CEO of CSX Corporation, a holding company focused on railroads, from 2003 to 2017.

Life

Michael Ward served as chairman and chief executive officer of CSX Corporation for fourteen years. CSX is one of the nation's premier transportation and logistics companies. Over his 40-year career, Mr. Ward headed CSX's operations, coal sales and marketing, and finance departments.[4]

He is the oldest of eight siblings; his father owned a pool hall, which he started working in at the age of eleven. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree, which he paid for by working at an asphalt company during the summer. After getting his MBA from Harvard at his father's suggestion, he started working at Chessie System, which would later become CSX.[5] He became President of CSX Transportation in 2000, then of CSX Corporation in 2002, then Chairman and CEO in 2003. In 2009, he was named Railway Age's Railroader of the Year. [6] He stepped down as CEO of CSX in May 2017 and was succeeded by E. Hunter Harrison. [7]

Under Mr. Ward's leadership, the company continually achieved record safety performances while providing vital services to customers and posting strong financial results for shareholders. On the Harvard Business Review November 2016 ranking of The Best-Performing CEOs in the World, Mr. Ward ranked 26th in generating the best return for shareholders and the environment. [8]

A native to Baltimore, Mr. Ward's commitment to personal philanthropy and corporate citizenship has been recognized with City Year's prestigious "Lifetime of Idealism Award".[9] and the Association of Fundraising Professionals FL, First Coast Chapter's 2023 National Philanthropy Lifetime Achievement Award.[10] Mr. Ward serves on various not for profit boards including City Year (http://www.cityyear.org/jacksonville/), Edward Waters University (http://www.ew.edu/), Hubbard House (http://www.hubbardhouse.org/), and Gen Wow (http://genwownow.org/).

Through his private foundation, the Michael Ward and Jennifer Glock Foundation, he has donated over $35M to various charitable causes. The focus of the giving has been increasing educational opportunities and results in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and college, as well as promoting healthy relationships, preventing domestic violence, support of the military and the arts.

References

  1. ↑ "Michael J. Ward". NNDB.com. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  2. ↑ "Michael Jon Ward: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  3. ↑ Wrinn, Jim (2016-02-15). "CSX's Michael Ward: I'll be around three more years". Trains. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  4. ↑ "NNDB tracking the entire world". February 22, 2017.
  5. ↑ Smith Business School (2012-05-24). Michael Ward, Chairman and CEO of CSX, speaks at 2012 Smith graduation. YouTube. Retrieved 2016-09-22. {{cite AV media}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. ↑ "Ward honored as Railroader of the Year". 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  7. ↑ "CSX Is Cutting 1,000 Managers and Losing Its CEO". 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  8. ↑ "The Best-Performing CEOs in the World". 2016-11-01. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  9. ↑ Creatv21784 (2011). City Year 2011 Idealism Award Video-Michael Ward. YouTube. Retrieved 2022-12-20.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "2023 National Philanthropy Day". 2023-11-02. Retrieved 2023-10-30.


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