Snow, John William

Snow, John William, 1939–, U.S. government official and business executive, b. Toledo, Ohio. An economist and lawyer, he held Dept. of Transportation posts in the Nixon and Ford administrations including deputy undersecretary (1975–76) and administrator of the National Highway Safety Administratiom (1976–77). In 1977, Snow, an advocate of transportation-industry deregulaton, became a lobbyist and vice president with the Chessie System Railway, which merged with the Seaboard Coast Line in 1980 to form the CSX Corp. He rose to become president (1988), chief executive officer (1989), and chairman (1991) of CSX and oversaw the railroad's purchase of 42% of Conrail, which was completed in 1999. From 2003 to 2006 Snow served secretary of the treasury under President George W. Bush.