December 2022, Vol. 249, No. 12
Business
People in the News December 2022
People
NDT Global appointed of Oliver Baur as vice president of Global Robotics and general manager, Norway. Starting his career with NDT Global in Stutensee, Germany, as an Electrical Engineer in 2010, Baur moved to Houston in 2011. Since then, he has worked to expand NDT Global’s technical support capabilities to support the company’s growth in the Americas. In his most recent role as deputy vice president of Robotics, Baur successfully coordinated Engineering/Robotics/Supply Chain activities with their global departments and created alignment across various reporting groups and regions in accordance with corporate goals. He will relocate from Houston to Bergen, Norway, for his new position, which NDT Global said is key to align the appropriate resources to evolve the Global Robotics team, while harmonizing companywide processes and standards.
Thermoplastic fusion equipment manufacturer McElroy announced that Alex Palaiologos has joined the company as UK international business manager. A native of Athens, Greece, Palaiologos earned a bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico City, where he worked during his studies at McElroy distributor G&G. He received his fusion instructor certification, while also working with the commercial and technical aspects at G&G. As McElroy’s UK international business manager, Palaiologos will work alongside customers with their machinery. In addition to overseeing McElroy’s network of distributors and customers in the UK, he will serve as support for the company’s UK Technical Service specialist, visiting jobsites to provide machine support.
AVANGRID promoted Patricia Cosgel to chief financial officer after serving as the company’s interim CFO since February. In her new role, Cosgel oversees Treasury, Control and Administration, Investor Relations, Risk and Tax. She joined AVANGRID in 2015 as vice president of Investor Relations. Previously, she worked at UIL as vice president and treasurer, and prior to that, she held various roles during 12 years at Eversource, including assistant treasurer and director of Enterprise Risk Management. Cosgel began her career at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. She holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dickinson College.
At ComEd, Lewis “Louie” Binswanger has been named senior vice president of Government, Regulatory and External Affairs, with responsibilities that extend to energy acquisition and strategy and economic and workforce development. He also will have oversight for the corporate relations function, which manages ComEd’s relationships with civic and charitable organizations. He also serves as a member of the ComEd Management Committee. Binswanger has nearly 40 years of utility industry experience. Prior to joining ComEd, Binswanger was the vice president of External Affairs for Nicor Gas, where he directed the company’s regulatory policy, strategy and planning, as well as its legislative and governmental affairs activities. Before that, he was senior vice president Legal, Governmental and Regulatory Affairs at SourceGas, led Business and Regulatory Affairs at TECO Energy and served in technical, operational and general management roles with electric and gas utilities around the United States.
Brian Savoy, executive vice president and chief strategy and commercial officer at Duke Energy, has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer, succeeding Steve Young. As CFO, Savoy will oversee the company’s financial function, including the controller’s office, Treasury, Tax, Financial Planning, Risk Management, and Insurance. He will also have responsibility for corporate development and enterprise strategy. Savoy previously served as senior vice president and chief transformation and administrative officer and as chief accounting officer and controller. He joined Duke Energy in 2001 as a manager in the company’s energy trading unit. Young now serves as Duke’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
Entergy has promoted Pete Norgeot as executive vice president and chief operating officer from senior vice president of Operations and Development, replacing Paul Hinnenkamp, who retired. In his new role, Norgeot oversees Safety and Human Performance, Power Generation, Power Delivery, System Resilience, System Planning, capital projects, and critical infrastructure protection. He also oversees the company’s incident response and storm restoration organization. An executive officer at Entergy since 2018, Norgeot previously served as senior vice president of Transformation, where he oversaw the team responsible for identifying long-term growth opportunities and business strategies, along with External Affairs, nuclear decommissioning activities and plant operations for Entergy Wholesale Commodities. He also served as senior vice president of Power Generation and as vice president of Power Plant Operations, Steam Division. Prior to joining Entergy, Norgeot’s power industry career spanned more than 26 years in power generation, commercial management and large-scale development and construction projects in the United States and abroad. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
NorthWestern Energy said its president and chief operating officer, Brian Bird, will succeed retiring CEO Bob Rowe as chief executive officer on Jan. 1, 2023. Bird has been with the company for 18 years and served as president and COO since February 2021, overseeing NorthWestern Energy’s operations, including electric and natural gas transmission and distribution, energy supply, customer care and technology.
At NW Natural, Zach Kravitz was named vice president of Rates and Regulatory. Prior to his current role, Kravitz served as senior director of Rates and Regulatory from 2021-2022, director of Rates and Regulatory from 2018-2021, and as a regulatory attorney from 2014-2018. Before joining NW Natural, he was an associate attorney at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP from 2011-2014, focusing his practice on energy and utilities law. He also previously served as an assistant attorney General in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, where he worked in the Labor Relations Division. Kravitz earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Government from The University of Texas at Austin and a Doctor of Law (J.D.) from the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law.
ONE Gas promoted Samette King to vice president of customer service, where she will oversee all aspects of customer support services. King joined the company more than 40 years ago as a cooperative office education clerk and has held various positions of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as director of Business Office Services. She is an active member of the ONE Gas Inclusion & Diversity Council and was one of the founders of WE Lead, an employee resource group for ONE Gas women. She serves as a board member of the Wayman L. Tisdale Foundation and as a trustee of the Metropolitan Baptist Church. She was a founding member of the North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative.
ICR Integrity announced that Antonio Caraballo has joined its leadership team as director to support the global growth of ICR’s inspection and integrity management business and reinforce its engineering team. In his previous role, Caraballo led the multidiscipline integrity management division for INEOS FPS while also acting as pipelines technical authority. He holds a master’s degrees in pipeline engineering from the Cranfield University and in materials science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and began his studies in his native Colombia. He has worked in project and integrity engineering roles both in the UK and abroad for companies such as GE Oil & Gas, Wood Group and BP as well as serving as a fellow of the Energy Institute and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
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