New NS board member has familiar name

Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles has been elected a member of Norfolk Southern’s board of directors.

His name is most associated with President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, on which he served as co-chair with former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.).

Bowles twice lost bids to become a U.S. senator from North Carolina. In 2002, he lost a bid to succeed Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), losing to Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.); and in 2004, seeking the seat of John Edwards (D-N.C.), who had resigned, Bowles was defeated by Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

A retired president of the University of North Carolina, Bowles also serves on the boards of General Motors, the Wall Street firm of Morgan Stanley and a North Carolina insurance company.