OREANDA-NEWS. Donald W. Seale, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC), has announced his plan to retire effective March 1, 2015, Chairman and CEO Wick Moorman said today.

"Don's central role in building Norfolk Southern's culture of continuous improvement in customer focus began at the corporation's creation, and we will continue to benefit from it well into the future," Moorman said. "His leadership has helped position railroads not only as engines of economic growth but as true partners with the people and industries we serve."

NS' board of directors will name Seale's successor at a later time.

Seale joined NS in 1976 as a management trainee. He served in numerous sales and marketing capacities relating to the railroad's service to its merchandise and coal customers before being named senior vice president marketing services in 2003, executive vice president sales and marketing in 2004, and executive vice president and chief marketing officer in 2006.

Seale's tenure as leader of NS' marketing division saw expansion in demand for quality rail service. The corporation recorded its first USD 10 billion railway operating revenues year and annual revenues increased by approximately USD 4 billion during that time.

He championed new, more time-sensitive service offerings for producers, manufacturers, shippers, and receivers of coal, automobiles, chemicals, agriculture and consumer products, metals and construction materials, paper, clay, forest products, and intermodal trailers and containers. In the last three years, Seale's team has been a leader in developing and marketing rail services to new and expanding businesses in the energy sector. He has also been a strong and tireless advocate of industrial development to spur new industries and jobs across the states Norfolk Southern serves culminating in USD 5.7 billion in new investments and over 4400 associated jobs in 2014 alone.