Vanessa L. Allen Sutherland is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer for Norfolk Southern Corporation. She joined Norfolk Southern Corporation as Vice President Law in June 2018. On April 1, 2019 she was promoted to Senior Vice President Law & Chief Legal Officer, and was promoted to Senior Vice President Government Relations & CLO on August 16, 2019. Prior to joining Norfolk Southern, she served as CEO and chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in Washington, D.C. Previously, she served as chief counsel with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; counsel with Philip Morris USA and senior counsel with Phillip Morris parent Altria. Sutherland began work as a corporate attorney at long-distance phone company MCI. In 1998, she moved to MCI subsidiary Digex, where she served first as counsel and later as senior counsel and then vice president and deputy general counsel.
Sutherland holds an undergraduate degree from Drew University and a Juris Doctor and an MBA from American University. She has expertise in Fortune 100 corporations, start-ups and the federal government, specifically handling compliance, regulatory, IP/Privacy, commercial, strategic planning and personnel matters. Sutherland was the recipient of three U.S. Secretary of Transportation Awards (2012 & 2014), a Virginia Lawyers Weekly “Leaders in the Law” Award (2010), a Fellowship in Maryland State Bar (2005) and Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (2011), and the 2017 “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Award”, sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Richmond.