MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway announced Wednesday that Jo-ann dePass Olsovsky has been appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of CN, effective immediately.
DePass Olsovsky, 56, brings more than 35 years of technology, infrastructure operations, and railroad experience to CN. She is currently the executive vice president and chief information officer of Salesforce, where she oversees the company’s global information technology organization, including technology strategy; customer, partner and employee experience; enterprise applications; network infrastructure; collaboration tools; enterprise operations; architecture; and merger & acquisition integration.
She previously spent almost 12 years at BNSF Railway where she served as senior VP and CIO, leading enterprise information technology, including train control and operational systems supporting safety, transportation & digital train control, mechanical, engineering, and intermodal automation.
In addition, she led the cloud digitization strategy focused on customer experience through cloud applications, advanced technologies enablement through operations research, and predictive analytics. Ms. dePass Olsovsky also led drone inspection operations for bridges, track, and structures, which were all enabled through the railroad’s telecommunications and North American network.
Prior to BNSF, she held technology leadership positions at AT&T and GTE-Verizon supporting telecommunications, cybersecurity, customer experience, and 7x24 internal network infrastructure and operations.
“We are pleased to welcome Jo-ann to CN as an independent director,” said Robert Pace, Chair of the Board of Directors of CN. “She has deep expertise in advanced technologies and customer applications, and spent more than a decade as a senior executive at a Class I railroad. The intersection of her technology, operations and railroad experience creates a powerful combination of expertise that will be valuable to CN as we continue building the railway of the future using digital innovation to drive safety, operational excellence, customer experience and enhanced long-term shareholder value.”
The vacancy on CN’s Board that was created in September when an independent director resigned to spend more time on her full-time executive role outside of CN. With the appointment of dePass Olsovsky, CN’s Board is comprised of 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent and five of whom are women.
The Board continues to focus on recruiting top quality independent directors who will contribute a diverse set of perspectives for CN.
DePass Olsovsky and family immigrated to the United States and Canada, and is of Hispanic descent. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University, as well as a master’s in project management from George Washington University. She has earned numerous industry recognitions for technology achievements, including Hispanic IT Executive Council’s Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics, Computerworld Top 100, and most recently as No. 10 on Technology Magazine’s 2021 TOP 100 CIOs.
CN operates a rail line through Will, Kankakee and Iroquois counties.
Gloss