Calgary Alberta - After Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) lost two chief financial officers in less than three years, the interim replacement acknowledged Wednesday that the role will always have a low profile at a railway that's dominated by strong personalities.
 
"A CFO at CP is going to be a bit of a lesser role than some other industries," interim CFO Nadeem Velani told a Morgan Stanley conference in Laguna, California, USA.
 
Velani has worked with CEO Hunter Harrison and chief operating officer Keith Creel for more than a decade, first at Canadian National Railway and then at CP, which he joined in 2013.
 
He said he knows what both Harrison and Creel, who will succeed Harrison as CEO in July 2017, want from a finance chief, "which isn't a CFO that's going to run the company."
 
CP announced last week that Mark Erceg would step down from the CFO role after less than 16 months on the job.
 
It emerged Tuesday that Erceg is taking the same position at luxury jewellery retailer Tiffany & Co.
 
Prior to Erceg, Bart Demosky joined the railway in late 2013 from Suncor Energy Inc. and left after a year and a half on the job.
 
"The recent lack of consistency in the role is concerning, but we think it stems from the culture of CP, which is extremely results-oriented and driven (you could say relentless), rather than from financial performance or issues," Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee wrote in a recent analysis.
 
He added that Velani should be "strongly considered as a permanent replacement," given his knowledge of the industry, experience with CP's leadership team, and capability as a finance executive.
 
Kristine Owram.