January 2017, Vol. 244, No. 1

Company & Association News

Business

Association News

The Southern Gas Association Board of Directors named Bill Cantrell as president and CEO for the Dallas-based group. He replaces Mike Grubb who announced his retirement last summer. SGA has over 500 volunteer leaders serving on 60 committees. Cantrell has an Electrical Engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Tampa.

Cantrell began his career at Tampa Electric Co. and advanced through a number of positions with increasing responsibilities, and was named president of Peoples Gas in 1997. Later in his career Cantrell became president and CEO at SourceGas, now part of Black Hills Corp., a member of SGA. He served on the SGA Board of Directors and chaired SGA in 2009.

“Bill has a passion for work especially in the gas industry but also has a strong passion for SGA’s mission of linking people, ideas and information. He believes the training and education role the SGA plays is absolutely essential to the industry, and that being a member-driven organization drives relevancy for the membership. These combined with his outgoing personality, desire to continue to develop and groom talent, position Bill as an excellent choice, for the Chief Executive Officer role at Southern Gas Association and the Gas Machinery Research Council,” said Association Chair Kim Watson.

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) Commissioner Robert F. Powelson has been elected as the next president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). He will serve a one-year term. Founded in 1889, NARUC is a non-profit organization dedicated to representing the state public service commissions that regulate the utilities that provide essential services such as energy, telecommunications, power, water, and transportation. NARUC’s members include utility regulators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Personnel Changes

Scott Glaeser has joined Houston-based G2 Integrated Solutions as its vice president, Midwest Region where he will be responsible for the development, implementation and execution of G2-IS’ Midwest growth strategy. He 25 years of experience in the gas utility industry, holding leadership positions across various functional and strategic areas, including operations, engineering, state and federal regulatory matters and business development. He previously served as vice president of Gas Operations and Development for Ameren Illinois Co. and directed gas operations, engineering/technical support, regulatory compliance and strategic planning for gas transmission and storage facilities supplying 816,000 natural gas customers over a 44,000-square-mile service territory.

Atmos Energy Corp. promoted two members of its senior management team. Kevin Akers, president of the Kentucky/Mid-States Division will become senior vice president, Safety and Enterprise Services, replacing Marvin Sweetin, who retired Dec. 31. Also Matt Robbins, vice president, Human Resources was promoted to senior vice president, Human Resources.

New Jersey Resources named Amanda E. Mullan senior vice president and chief human resources officer and Timothy F. Shea vice president, NJR Energy Services.

As part of a leadership succession plan, the Board of Directors of PG&E Corp. elected Geisha Williams as CEO and president of PG&E Corp. Williams is currently president, Electric of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., PG&E Corporation’s utility subsidiary.

Tony Earley, Jr., chairman, CEO and president of PG&E Corp., was elected executive chair of the PG&E Corp. Board of Directors. Nick Stavropoulos, president, Gas of PG&E Co., was elected president and COO of PG&E. The new roles take effect March 1. The roles of president for the gas and electric businesses will be merged into the single utility president role to be held by Stavropoulos.

Martin Fingerhut has joined Technical Toolboxes as president and CEO. He will lead the strategy and digital transformation of the Houston company’s pipeline industry standard suite of technical software applications to the Cloud. Fingerhut has 30 years of global business and technology leadership experience across a wide range of sectors and disciplines. Prior to joining Technical Toolboxes, he served as vice president of Strategic Business Development for APPLUS RTD. Before that, he worked as president of Kiefner & Associates, Inc., a pipeline consulting firm.

 David H. Sweeney has joined Akin Gump as a partner in its energy practice in Houston. Sweeney, who advises clients on a broad range of U.S. domestic and international oil and gas, coal, and other natural resource, infrastructure and finance transactions, comes to Akin Gump from K&L Gates, where he was a partner. During the past 11 years, he has advised on energy-related M&A deals with an aggregate transaction value exceeding $60 billion. A former landman, Sweeney received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law.

Jack Coker and Allister Graham have joined the expanded Houston office of Ducatus Partners, an executive search firm for the global energy industry. The new principals were hired as part of the company’s diversification into the infrastructure, power and renewables sectors while further strengthening its position in the oil and gas industry. Coker’s appointment brings experience from construction and infrastructure recruitment. Graham joins with a track record in oil and gas executive search.

Ryan Moss joined the Lucid Energy Group as executive vice president and CFO. Lucid recently acquired Agave Energy Co. and Agave Energy Holdings, Inc., which together own and operate natural gas gathering and processing assets in the Delaware Basin of southeastern New Mexico and the Powder River Basin of eastern Wyoming.

Thierry Monart was named regional general manager for the Atlas Copco specialty rental division in the U.S. and Mexico.

Sara N. Ortwein was named president of XTO Energy Inc. at ExxonMobil Corp. She previously served as president of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co.

Phil Galati joined Energy Services Group, LLC as CEO. He succeeds Lynn Cannon, founder and former CEO, who retired as part of a planned transition.

Conti Energy Services named Mett S. Carroll vice president of construction and Bernie Drane general superintendent. Each has over 35 years of pipeline construction experience.

Wood Group appointed Jan Dell as vice president of Clean Energy. Based in Houston and leading a global team of 350, she will lead the expansion of services into adjacent sectors together with the geographic expansion of existing services.

Oilfield Helping Hands (OHH), a nonprofit providing financial assistance to oilfield workers in financial crisis, named Gregory Rachal president. Since it was founded in 2003, OHH has raised over $3.3 million over 300 families.

Scott Balfour was appointed COO of Emera Inc. He is responsible for senior executive oversight and governance of affiliates in Florida and New Mexico.

Hydro Group named William (Bill) Mildon president of the newly formed Hydro Group Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary in Pinellas County, FL. The company plans to set up a manufacturing plant to produce Hydro Group products for the U.S. market.

Chevron Corp. named Clay Neff president of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production. He succeeds Ali Moshiri, who will retire from Chevron after 38 years of service.

Tom Walters, president, ExxonMobil Production Co., announced his intention to retire after 38 years of service. Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Development Co., was appointed to replace him and also elected as a vice president of the corporation. Liam Mallon, executive vice president of ExxonMobil Development, will replace Duffin.

Company News, Mergers & Acquisitions

EN Engineering opened a new office at 2051 Killebrew Drive, Suite 335, in Bloomington, MN.

Terramac is expanding its North American market to include Kirby-Smith as part of its dealer network. Kirby-Smith will offer Terramac crawler carriers to serve the pipeline industry with customizable equipment that accommodates various pipeline applications in Oklahoma.

AMETEK Solidstate Controls hosted an open house at its newly renovated training facility in Houston. The event featured a three-hour training course that covered the theory and operation of industrial power/power conditioning equipment. Don Imlay, manager of Training and Support for SCI, provided hands-on demonstrations with SCI’s Digital ProcessPower (DPP) UPS and Digitally Controlled Ferroresonant (DSE) UPS system to 18 training course participants.

H&E Equipment Services opened a branch in Suwanee, GA, located at 745 Brogdon Road, Suwanee, GA  30024. It will provide full-service coverage to customers in North Atlanta and all of northern Georgia.