Canadian Pacific Appoints Hunter Harrison as CEO

An activist shareholder has had his say at Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (NYSE:CP) (TSE:CNR) and installed a handpicked CEO to turn things around at the railroad.

CP’s largest shareholder, Bill Ackman of Pershing Capital Management LP, won a proxy battle six weeks ago to nominate seven nominees to the company’s board. The board named Hunter Harrison, 67, previously of the Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CP), as CEO.

Harrison’s obvious remit is to turn around CP, and has accepted the challenge, claiming that he is looking to cut operating expenses from the 80.1 percent of sales in March to 65 percent in 2015. To do...