Kansas City Kansas USA - Kansas City Southern (KCS) is designating two executives to take a lead on key assignments as it pursues a sale to Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) valued at US$29 billion.
 
The company named Jeffrey Songer, who has served as executive vice president and COO of the Kansas City-based railroad, as executive vice president strategic merger planning.
 
Songer will oversee the process of getting approval to merge operations with CP and draw out plans for making a merger of operations actually work, according to a release.
 
KCS also named John Orr as executive vice president operations.
 
Orr spent more than 30 years at Canadian National Railway (CN), most recently as senior vice president and chief transportation officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
 
Orr had been working at an executive consultant for KCS since February, according to a release.
 
KCS CEO Pat Ottensmeyer praised both men during the company's first-quarter earnings call.
 
He said Songer is part of a small team of executives from KCS and CP allowed to confidentially share information to press for the combination of the two smallest Class I railroads, according to a transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.
 
Ottensmeyer said the team has a "massive amount of work" ahead to build the strongest possible case in favor of the transaction.
 
He said Songer is ideally suited to his new role, "which is arguably the most significant project we've ever faced."
 
Ottensmeyer said that in the past couple of months, Orr and the company have had a chance to get to know each other, and said he's "a tremendous fit."
 
KCS said last month that it has accepted a cash-and-stock offer to sell to CP.
 
The combination would create a railroad with a network spanning Canada and stretching across the U.S. and Mexico.
 
Terms of the deal call for putting stock in a voting trust while the companies pursue approval from the Surface Transportation Board.
 
Brian Kaberline.