John W. Snow

John W. Snow married Carolyn, and the couple has three children and six grand children. Though his office is in Washington, he prefers to be in his home in Richmond, on weekends.

John William Snow was born on August 2, 1939 at Toledo, Ohio, to Catherine (Howard), a school teacher, and William Dean Snow, a tax attorney. He completed high school from Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio.

He joined Kenyon College and graduated from the University of Toledo. After obtaining a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Virginia, he taught Economics at the University of Maryland from 1965 to 1968.

He achieved a second doctorate, when he got his Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School. He joined the Washington, DC -based law company, Wheeler & Wheeler in 1967.

From 1972 to 1975, Snow taught Law at the George Washington University Law School. During this period, he served in many other government posts such as Assistant General Counsel for the Department of Transportation.

In 1975, he resigned from his teaching post, and assumed the post of Deputy Undersecretary in the Department of Transportation. The following year, he became Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

During Carter’s Presidency, he exited from governmental posts to resume teaching at the University of Virginia and the American Enterprise Institute, and was a Distinguished Fellow at the Yale School of Management until 1980.

His experience with the Department of Transportation proved invaluable when, in 1977, he become the Vice President Governmental Affairs for Chessie System, Inc., which owned three American railroads.

In 1980, CSX Corporation was formed following a merger agreement between Chessie System, Inc. and Seaboard Coast Line Industries. Snow became the new company’s Senior Vice President-Corporate Services.

Snow supported improved corporate governance practices as the co-chairman of the Conference Board's Blue-Ribbon Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise, and the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement in 1992.

As the Chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading companies, from 1994 to1996, he was instrumental in the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement.