“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than be a CEO of a rail company.”
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That’s how David Goode replied when asked about his career choice, and it is clear in his story telling that he loved his work.
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Goode became enamored with railroads early in life. He grew up on a hillside near the Roanoke River in Virginia where he listened to the sounds of steam locomotives on the Virginian Railway line as they passed by his home. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he took a job as a tax attorney for the Norfolk & Western and never looked back. Over the course of his decades-long career, he was promoted through the tax department and ultimately retired as the Chairman, President, and CEO of Norfolk Southern.