Ceraso Appointed as NS Vice President, Integrated Resource Planning

In this newly established role, Ceraso will be responsible for leading NS’s integrated resource planning process. According to NS, “the elevation of enterprise resource planning is another element of the Class I railroad’s ground-breaking strategy, which is based on a disciplined balance of service, productivity, and growth.”

Additionally, Vice President Treasury and Investor Relations Chris Neikirk intends to retire from the company next year, after a 30-plus year career of significant accomplishments, NS announced. In a transition as part of the succession process, Ceraso will assume leadership of those functions in early 2024. 

Ceraso most recently served as Executive Director at JP Morgan Asset Management. In this role, he was the global sector leader for automotive research in the U.S., Europe and Asia, directly covering more than 30 automotive and transportation stocks with oversight of nearly 100 global automotive stocks. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Ceraso served as a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he covered the automotive and transportation sectors. During his tenure at Credit Suisse, Ceraso was recognized by Institutional Investor Magazine as a top-ranked sell-side automotive and transportation stock analyst. Earlier in his career, he worked at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management, where he held a variety of roles, including serving as Vice President, Controller, Financial Planning.

Ceraso is a CFA charterholder and graduated from The College of New Jersey with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing.

“We are pleased to add an executive of Chris’ caliber to Norfolk Southern’s finance team,” said NS President and CEO Alan Shaw. “As a long-time industry analyst, Chris brings strong knowledge of our markets through his transportation and automotive experience on the buy- and sell-side. Further, having spent three decades in the financial services industry, Chris has deep knowledge of the investment community and understands their perspectives on Norfolk Southern. We are confident that Chris’ extensive transportation expertise will help Norfolk Southern continue to advance our industry-leading growth strategy and commitment to shareholder value creation.”