Midwest Energy Association Welcomes New Officers

Midwest ENERGY Association (MEA) welcomes the newly elected board of directors. Earnie Lehman of Midwest Energy, Inc was welcomed as Chair at the recent Board meeting in Carefree, AZ. Lehman is "thankful for the opportunity to lead the MEA Board as the organization continues to broaden and deepen the services offered to MEA members. Outgoing Chairman Bill Doty of Vectren and his predecessor, Bill Herdegen from Kansas City Power & Light Company, provided fine examples of the leadership MEA needs and deserves. It will be a pleasure to work with our President Patrick Van Beek and the rest of the MEA staff and Board over the coming year as "partners in excellence, committed to results."

Eagan, MN (PRWEB) March 26, 2008 -- Midwest ENERGY Association (MEA) welcomes the newly elected board of directors. Earnie Lehman of Midwest Energy, Inc was welcomed as Chair at the recent Board meeting in Carefree, AZ. Lehman is "thankful for the opportunity to lead the MEA Board as the organization continues to broaden and deepen the services offered to MEA members. Outgoing Chairman Bill Doty of Vectren and his predecessor, Bill Herdegen from Kansas City Power & Light Company, provided fine examples of the leadership MEA needs and deserves. It will be a pleasure to work with our President Patrick Van Beek and the rest of the MEA staff and Board over the coming year as "partners in excellence, committed to results."

Lehman is particularly enthused about two new MEA initiatives which show particular promise, "the Energetic Women group helps women build careers in engineering and utility operations, the two utility job areas where they are most under-represented. I'm looking forward to being a part of the first Energetic Women conference in Chicago June 24-26. We also have energy industry volunteers and MEA staff beginning work on an Electric Training Initiative that will build a comprehensive, industry consensus, electric overhead and underground training and evaluation package. The Electric Training Initiative will provide to our electric members valuable tools similar to those used by our gas members. Both initiatives focus on developing the people our industry will so badly need as the baby boom generation retires."

2008-2009 Officers:

MEA Chair - Earnest A.Lehman, President & General Manager, Midwest Energy, Inc.

MEA First Vice Chair - Gene N. Dubay, Senior Vice President & COO, SEMCO Energy Gas Company

MEA Second Vice Chair - Anthony R. McCain, Vice President, Field Operations, Nicor Gas

MEA Treasurer - Joseph M. Groebner, President, Groebner & Associates, Inc.

MEA Secretary - Patrick D. Van Beek, President, Midwest ENERGY Association

MEA Past Chair - William S. Doty, Executive Vice President, Utility Operations, Vectren

New Directors:

Stephen R. Colyer, Director, Gas Operations, Ameren Services

Rick W. Legleitner, Manager, Employee Development & Skilling, Consumers Energy

Mary Palkovich, Director, Engineering and Technical Services, CenterPoint Energy

William A. Tracy, Senior Vice President, Operations, Citizens Gas & Coke Utility

Thomas C. Ziegenfuss, Senior Vice President & Chief Operations Officer, EN Engineering

Retiring Officer:

MEA Past Chair- William P. Herdegen, Vice President, Customer Operations, Kansas City Power & Light

Midwest ENERGY Association (MEA) is in its second century of service to the Gas, Electric, and Liquids energy industry. Its problem solving roundtables, learning conferences, on-line learning and web communications services are relied on by over 750 member organizations and customer companies in all 50 states. MEA is headquartered in Minneapolis.

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