Norfolk Southern’s Top Lawyer Nabanita Nag Fired Over Affair With CEO Alan. H. Shaw
- The company said their conduct is “inconsistent” with its Code of Ethics and policy.
Nabanita Nag, chief legal officer at Norfolk Southern in Atlanta, was fired yesterday over a consensual relationship with CEO Alan H. Shaw, who was also let go. In a news release, the company said the conduct of both Shaw and Nag is “inconsistent with the company’s Code of Ethics and company policy.”
Shaw’s “abrupt ouster” comes just days after the company began probing his relationship with Nag, CNBC reported, adding that “the probe took on a new intensity after the board publicly acknowledged it.”
Nag joined Norfolk Southern in 2020 as general counsel before being promoted to senior vice president in 2022 and executive vice president of corporate affairs the following year. She oversaw a sizable portion of Norfolk’s operations — including government relations, communications and compliance.
According to Atlanta Business Chronicle, which named Nag its 2024 Corporate Counsel Award Honoree, she “skillfully aligns these departments to safeguard the company’s reputation and ensure consistent messaging across internal and external channels. The publication said Nag was selected “based on her outstanding work as a general counsel leading a large legal department as it helped Norfolk Southern navigate a complex corporate crisis and emerge a stronger company.”
Nag played “an essential role in guiding the company’s response to a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The New York Post noted that the train derailment was “the largest railroad disaster the country has seen in a decade.” Eleven of the 38 cars derailed were carrying hazardous materials on Feb. 3, 2023, near the Pennsylvania border.
Before joining Norfolk Southern, Nag served as vice president and corporate counsel in the Financial Management Law Group at Prudential Financial. Prior to that role, she was vice president and associate general counsel in the Finance & Corporate Legal Group at Goldman Sachs. Nag began her career as an associate at law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Government and English from
Georgetown University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Both Nag and Shaw are married. Nag is married to Sagarnil “Neil” Nag, who is a managing director at Bank of America in New York. It is not clear if the couple has any children. Neil Nag, who previously was the chief investment officer at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s, resigned after three years on the job in 2021. Institutional Investor noted that “during his tenure, Nag tried to hire an army to build an in-house team.”Before this position, he was a senior portfolio manager at YMCA Retirement Fund. Prior to this, he was the director of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s investment officer.
Meanwhile, Shaw is married to Tiffany Shaw, and the couple has four kids. He will be replaced by finance chief Mark George.