News Release

BNSF Announces Leadership Appointments

FORT WORTH, Texas, May 25, 2004 :

Ken Kempker has been appointed vice president and chief sourcing officer of The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF), it has been announced by Carl Ice, executive vice president and chief operations officer. Kempker, who will report to Ice, succeeds Mark Schulze, who was named general manager of BNSF’s Texas Division earlier this month.

Also announced was the promotion of Dave Stropes to vice president, Corporate Audit Services, succeeding Kempker. Stropes, who had served as assistant vice president, Consumer Products, will report to Matt Rose, chairman, president and chief executive officer. A successor to Stropes will be named later.

Both appointments are effective immediately.

Kempker was named vice president, Corporate Audit Services, in 2000. He joined Santa Fe Pacific Corporation in December 1990 as manager, Financial Reporting, and held various positions in the Accounting area until May 1999, when he was named assistant vice president, Engineering Accounting. Prior to joining Santa Fe Pacific, he was an audit senior with the public accounting firm of Price Waterhouse.

Stropes joined Santa Fe Railway in 1984 as a software specialist in the Cost Analysis and Research Department. He subsequently served in several financial analytical positions and in 1993 was named manager, Finance. Stropes was promoted to director, Finance, for BNSF in 1996; assistant vice president, Planning and Capital, in 1999; assistant controller in 2001, and assistant vice president, Consumer Products in 2002.

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,500 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. The railway is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000