Release Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Charleston, W.Va. – The University of Charleston will host a series of five prominent figures in the energy business during the spring semester in a series titled, “Energy: Who’s Got the Power?”
The lineup begins on February 7 with Nick Akins, president and CEO of American Electric Power (AEP). A native of Louisiana, Akins joined the company in 1982 as an electrical engineer. Prior to being elected president of AEP in December 2010, he served as executive vice president - generation from 2006 through 2010. He was named chief executive officer as well in November 2011.
While leading the generation business unit, Akins oversaw development of the world’s first fully-integrated carbon capture and storage validation project at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in Mason County, W.Va., and construction of the nation’s only ultra-supercritical pulverized coal plant in southwest Arkansas, which AEP says will be the most efficient coal plant in the country and the only use of this technology in the United States.
Following Akins on February 22 will be Eban Goodstein, Director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and founding director of Bard’s new MBA program in sustainability. Goodstein is an economist focused on the relationship between economics and the environment. He directs two national educational initiatives on global warming: C2C and The National Climate Seminar, and is the author of The Trade-off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment, among other books and articles.
On March 8, UC will host David Porges, chairman, president and CEO of EQT Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based integrated energy company and the largest natural gas supplier in the Appalachian Basin. Porges, a native of Chicago, spent seven years with Exxon Corporation and 11 years with Bankers Trust Corporation, prior to joining EQT in 1998. He was promoted to executive vice president in 2000, and to president and CEO in 2007.
The fourth speaker will be Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, America’s largest and the world’s third-largest producer of metallurgical coal, on March 27. Crutchfield has more than 24 years of experience in the coal industry and held senior leadership positions with Pittston Coal, AEI Resources, AMVEST Corporation, El Paso Corporation, Coastal Coal Company, and ANR Holdings prior to joining Alpha in 2003 when it acquired ANR.
The series will conclude with a discussion of global issues in energy on April 12. That event will feature Barry Worthington, Executive Director of the U.S. Energy Association. Worthington directs the association’s domestic and international activities and has written extensively on energy and environmental matters and is a frequent speaker on national and international energy issues.
All events begin at 6:30 p.m. in Geary Auditorium, Riggleman Hall, on the University of Charleston campus. UC President Edwin Welch will moderate, and speakers will answer questions from the audience in addition to their formal remarks. Questions may be submitted in advance at www.ucwv.edu/speakerseries/power. The series is sponsored by the Dow Chemical Foundation, making all events free and open to the public.