CALGARY -- Canadian Pacific Railway says Keith Creel will succeed CEO Hunter Harrison on July 1, 2017.

Creel is currently the Calgary-based railway company's president and chief operating officer.

Both men formerly held senior positions at CP's rival, Montreal-based Canadian National.

The announcement came hours after Canadian Pacific issued a separate statement saying that one of its board of directors has resigned, days after he lost an appeal of gross negligence penalties for not reporting $18.85 million of taxable income from dividends.

Canadian Pacific says Anthony Melman, who also served as the chairman of its finance committee, has stepped down to assess the impact of the Tax Court of Canada decision earlier this month.

Judge Randall Babcock ruled that Melman had been "wilfully blind" to his accountants' omission of the income in his 2007 tax return.

Melman joined the CP board in 2012 and has also been a member of its audit committee.

He is a former managing director of Onex Corp. and a former senior vice-president of CIBC, according to documents filed with regulators.