Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management will honor the chairman, president and CEO of one of the world's leading freight transportation companies as its 1997 International Executive of the Year.
The award to John W. Snow of CSX Corp. will be presented during the school's annual National Advisory Conference Nov. 6-8.Snow will address students and the public Friday, Nov. 7, at 3:45 p.m. in 151 Tanner Building. That evening he will be honored at a formal banquet in the Garden Court and Ballroom of the Wilkinson Center.
"We are fortunate to have an executive of John Snow's experience and stature receive this award," said K. Fred Skousen, dean of the Marriott School. "To have someone with his extensive background in business and education visit our campus and share his perspectives is a real honor."
This award is given to individuals who show outstanding leadership in public or private sectors and show high moral and ethical standards, Skousen said.
Snow was elected president and CEO of CSX Corp. in April 1989 and added the title of chairman in 1991. A native of Toledo, Ohio, he joined a predecessor company, Chessie System Inc., in 1977.
Snow has held various jobs at CSX, starting in the Washington office as vice president of government affairs and later moving to headquarters as senior vice president of law and public affairs. In 1985 he was elected president of the Chessie System Railroads and became president of the combined railroad system, CSX Transportation Inc., in 1987. He was elected president of the holding company in 1988.
Snow is "incredibly loyal to everyone he works with. He's competitive and demanding, but fair - no one can keep up with him intellectually," said his colleague and friend, Tom Hoppin, vice president of corporate communications at CSX.
Snow was the champion of the CSX Web site, (www.csx.com), and one of the first CEOs in the country to embrace the Economic Value-Added principle. He instituted EVA at CSX in the late '80s when not many people had heard about it.
"John is a free-market economist and a risk taker," Hoppin said. "After leaving the DOT, he championed deregulation of the railroad until it passed through Congress and was signed by President Carter."
As the former chairman of the Business Roundtable, he established the first joint relationship between the Keidanren, which is Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, and the Business Roundtable, and Snow hosted its first meeting.
Snow sits on the boards of Circuit City Stores Inc., NationsBank Corp., Textron Inc. and USX Corp. Snow is also a director on the boards of Johns Hopkins University, the Business Council and the Business Roundtable, where he is the immediate past chairman.
Snow earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Virginia and a law degree from George Washington University. He taught economics at the University of Virginia and law at the George Washington Law School at the University of Maryland.
Snow served in the Ford administration in various posts, including assistant secretary for governmental affairs, deputy undersecretary of transportation and administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Before his government service, he practiced law in Washington for a number of years.
Snow's home in Richmond, Va., is separated from the James River by the CSX railroad tracks. "He delights in telling people he lives by the tracks," Hoppin said.