December 2023, Vol. 250, No. 12
Business News
Business News December 2023
People
National Grid hired Lisa Wieland as president of its New England business. She will sit on the Group Executive Committee, reporting to National Grid CEO John Pettigrew. Wieland will succeed Steve Woerner, who will continue to lead the New England business through the end of 2023.
TC Energy promoted Stanley G. Chapman III to executive vice president and chief operating officer, natural gas pipelines. He is charged with integrating the natural gas business units into a single, unified natural gas pipelines business.
Algonquin Power & Utilities named Christopher Huskilson as interim CEO, while the Board of Directors looks for a successor to Arun Banskota. Huskilson is a former CEO of Emera and has been a director of Algonquin since 2020.
Justin Lagasse was named interim controller at Avangrid following the resignation of Senior Vice President and Controller Scott Tremble.
North Star hired sustainable shipping specialist Tamara Topić to lead the company’s implementation of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) strategies. She earned a doctorate in sustainable shipping from Newcastle University’s Marine, Offshore and Subsea Technology department, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and naval architecture from University of Zagreb.
Brody Wilson was appointed interim CFO of Northwest Natural Holding following the departure of Frank Burkhartsmeyer.
Wilkinson Barker Knauer is opening an office in Austin, Texas, which will be headed by new partners Will DuBois and Marty Hopkins. DuBois joins WBK from Xcel Energy, where he most recently served as vice president of Corporate Regulatory and Legislative Strategy. Hopkins from an Austin law firm where she advised clients on regulation, litigation and transactional matters.
Summit Utilities announced that Cindy Westcott is returning to the company as vice president of customer development and Eliza Castillo has joined as senior director of customer experience. Also, Bob Gunderman has been hired as chief financial officer.
Justin Lagasse has been named interim controller at Avangrid, following the resignation of Scott Tremble, senior vice president and controller.
Spire named Stephen Mills as senior vice president and president of Spire Missouri. He previously served as vice president and general manager of Spire Missouri’s operations in the western part of the state.
Wilkinson Barker Knauer announced Nikki Hall White has joined the firm as a partner, after serving as the director of regulatory strategy and services at Pepco Holdings, an Exelon Company. Additionally, Ashley Martin has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. She joined NIBCO in 2012 and has most recently served as executive vice president since 2021. Rex Martin will continue to assist the company with the title of chairman emeritus. He has been with the company for over 48 years and has most recently served as chairman since 1995.
Business
Expro
Energy services provider Expro is this year celebrating its golden anniversary of support to the North Sea energy industry and its successful 50-year connection with Great Yarmouth.
Established at the height of the 1973 oil crisis the company, originally called Exploration and Production Services (North Sea), was set up by John Trewhella OBE, Humphry Green, and Jim Ross in a small office in the old Hudson House building in Battery Road, Great Yarmouth. The office, which was below the stairs, was known within the company as the “broom cupboard.”
Success and expansion came quickly. Expro’s first job was on Christmas Eve 1973, testing an onshore well at the Wytch Farm development in Dorset. That was followed two years later by the opening of Expro’s first premises in Aberdeen and a contract from U.S. company Hamilton Brothers for the supply of production expertise to the historic Argyll field, which delivered the UK’s first North Sea oil in 1975.
Currently, Expro has 7,600 employees and provides services and solutions to leading exploration and production companies in both onshore and offshore environments in about 60 countries.
Sparrows Group, the engineering and maintenance specialists for the global energy and industrial sectors, rebranded itself as Altrad Sparrows. The change reflects recent expansion, but the business continues to operate autonomously.
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