New CSX Corp. President and CEO Steve Angel, 70, has more than 40 years of corporate experience that started with General Electric.
Angel most recently was CEO of Linde plc, where he stepped down in 2022. Linde is a global industrial gas and engineering company with 2024 sales of $33 billion. It operates in 80 countries and with more than 66,000 employees.
By contrast, CSX had $14.54 billion in revenue in 2024 and about 24,000 employees.
Angel replaces Joe Hinrichs, who CSX said resigned effective Sept. 27. CSX announced the transition Sept. 29.
Linde’s gases are used in the chemicals and energy, food and beverage, electronics, health care, manufacturing, metals and mining industries.
Angel was the chairman, president and CEO of U.S.-based Praxair from 2007 to 2018 when he led the merger of Praxair with German-based Linde. He became CEO with the company legally based in Ireland with primary executive offices in Surrey, United Kingdom.
Angel still serves on the board of Linde, but the company announced Sept. 21 he plans to retire effective Jan. 31, 2026, replaced by Sanjiv Lamba.
“It has been a privilege to serve Linde over the past 25 years. I’ve especially enjoyed working alongside our talented employees and fellow Directors,” Angel said in a Linde news release.
“While I am excited to pursue a new leadership opportunity and give it my full commitment, I am confident Linde is in excellent hands with Sanjiv, the Board, and the leadership team. Together, they’ve built a strong foundation to continue driving sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. I look forward to staying connected as a proud, long-term shareholder of Linde.”
Praxair merger
In 2017, U.S. Praxair and global Linde group merged in a $73 billion deal.
Reuters reported that Linde shareholders were offered 1.54 shares in the new company for every Linde share they held, while Praxair shareholders were offered one for one - leading to a roughly 50:50 ownership split.
Executives hailed the “historic” deal to create the world’s biggest gases group and reunite a company split 100 years ago by World War I. Praxair was founded by German Linde in 1907.
“We have taken an important first step toward realizing this once-in-a-lifetime merger opportunity,” Angel said in 2017.
The move came after the French gas company Air Liquide bought U.S.-based Airgas Inc. for about $10 billion.
Railroad giants Union Pacific and Norfork Southern Corp. announced in July they are merging, leading to rumors about CSX potentially merging with another railroad.
Other roles
CSX said Angel began his career at General Electric, where he spent 22 years in management positions, working directly with locomotive and rail operations.
Angel serves as nonexecutive chairman of the board of directors of GE Vernova, where he is a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee, and on the board of directors at GE Aerospace, where he chairs the Management Development and Compensation Committee.
He is a member of the board of directors of Stoke Space Technologies and has previously served as director of PPG Industries, the Hydrogen Council, and the US-China Business Council, and as co-chair of the US-Brazil CEO Forum. He is also a graduate member of The Business Council, where he served on the executive committee.
More on Angel
A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Angel holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State University, where he graduated in 1977, and an MBA from Loyola College in Baltimore.
In 2008, Steve and his wife, Lori, created The Angel Family Foundation. Their children, Mason and Logan, serve on the foundation with Logan as director.
The foundation says it is “rooted in our own family values: love, generosity, faith, and patriotism, as well as our commitment to our community, and our belief in the importance of education.”
Donations include $2.5 million to NC State’s Extraordinary Opportunity Scholarship Initiative in 2020; $1.5 million to the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work’s Global Mission Leadership Program at Baylor University in 2021; and $1.3 million to an endowed fellowship Tulane University’s Department of Economics in 2023.
Mason Angel is a graduate of Tulane in New Orleans.
In 2020, Steve Angel was awarded NC State’s Watauga Medal, the university’s highest nonacademic honor, for his decades of service to the university.
“He’s passionate about serving as a global advocate for the next generation of leaders in STEM and helping young people achieve their potential,” Chancellor Randy Woodson said in the award announcement.
“At NC State, he is a strong supporter of our women and minority engineering programs.”
In 2019, Angel was given the American-German Institute’s Leadership Award, which recognized Linde’s commitment to making the world more productive and its contribution to the German-American partnership.