Keith Creel

Keith Creel (born 1968) is an American-Canadian business executive, and is the president and chief executive officer of Canadian Pacific Kansas City.

Earlier career Creel was born in Alabama. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army and took part in the Gulf War. Upon graduation in 1992 he joined Burlington Northern Railroad as an operations manager, at first in Birmingham, Alabama.

Canadian Pacific Creel moved to Canadian Pacific Railway, as President and Chief Operating Officer, in early 2013. and succeeded Harrison as Chief Executive in January 2017, earlier than the originally planned handover date of July 2017. As CEO he has made efforts to improve services and attract more customers, and to improve relations between company and workforce after earlier staff cuts.

In 2020, industry trade journal Railway Age named Creel Railroader of the Year for 2021 and 2022. The Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroad (CPKC) merged in April 2023 to form the only single line rail entity connecting the US, Canada and Mexico. The success of this merger, experts say, resulted in increased compensation packages for the company’s top executives. Creel received CA$20 million making him one of the highest paid individuals in the country. Creel’s base salary was CA$1.8 million ; the remainder was in share-based, option based and other reward incentives.