MONTREAL, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - CN (TSX:CNR)(NYSE:CNI) announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Claude Mongeau as a director of the Company, effectively immediately.

Mongeau, executive vice-president of CN, will succeed E. Hunter Harrison as CN president and chief executive officer on Jan. 1, 2010.

Mongeau's appointment increases the size of CN's board to 12, of whom 10 are outside directors. Mongeau is also a director of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.

Separately, CN announced that its Board has approved a fourth-quarter 2009 dividend on the Company's common shares outstanding. A quarterly dividend of 25.25 cents (C$0.2525) per common share will be paid on Dec. 31, 2009, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 10, 2009.

CN - Canadian National Railway Company and its operating railway subsidiaries - spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key metropolitan areas of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information on CN, visit the Company's website at www.cn.ca.

SOURCE CN