News Releases

(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – John Voyles, LG&E and KU Energy’s vice president, Transmission and Generation Services, announced today plans to retire in March 2017 after nearly 41 years with the company.

Voyles started his career as a mechanical engineer at Louisville Gas and Electric Company in 1976 and subsequently held various manager and director positions at LG&E's Mill Creek and Cane Run generating stations and its Ohio Falls hydroelectric station. He also served as LG&E Energy Corporation’s first director of Environmental Excellence and LG&E Energy's director of Generation Services. He served as vice president of Regulated Generation before being promoted to his present position in 2008.

Voyles has led the company through a number of key initiatives, including startup of the Cane Run 4 wet flue gas desulfurization system, LG&E’s first full-scale scrubber. He became the operating liaison on startup of all four of the Mill Creek scrubbers. He has testified in many environmental cases for the company in front of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, including the utilities’ largest construction phase in its history. That project included environmental upgrades at each plant and the construction of Cane Run 7, Kentucky’s first natural gas combined-cycle generating unit.

In 2012, he testified twice before the House Energy and Power Subcommittee on the impacts of carbon legislation on coal-fired generation and has been a key authority for the company on carbon and carbon research, having served on EPRI’s Research Advisory Committee for 15 years, including five years as the chairman. He also served on Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters’ Climate Change Advisory group for Kentucky, and was on the technical committee for Futuregen, which was designed to be the world’s first, coal-fired, near-zero emissions, power plant.

Voyles has a degree in mechanical engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. He is active in the community and serves on the boards of the Fund for the Arts, the Ohio Valley Electric Company and Electric Energy Inc. As coordinators of the National Kidney Foundations annual fundraising golf tournament, he, and former Chief Administrative Officer, Brad Rives, also helped set national fundraising records for the Kidney Foundation on multiple occasions.

“Having spent his entire career at LG&E and KU, John’s experience has been invaluable to our company,” said Victor A. Staffieri, LG&E and KU chairman, CEO and president. “His vast knowledge of our plants, as well as carbon and other environmental regulations, have been important in helping us, and the industry, address the challenges of supplying energy in an ever-changing regulatory environment. I wish Vicky and him all the best.”

Effective April 1, 2017, Scott Straight, director, Project Engineering, will be promoted to vice president, Project Engineering, and will report to David Sinclair, LG&E and KU vice president of Energy Supply and Analysis. Straight joined the company in 1984 as a mechanical engineer and has been a part of, or overseen nearly every major construction project the company has undergone since that time. He moved to an environmental engineer role in 1991 and was promoted to manager of Technical Services in 1996 before being named to his current role in 2002.

Tom Jessee, LG&E and KU vice president, Transmission, will report to Paul W. Thompson, chief operating officer.

Eileen Saunders, director, Generation Services, will report to Ralph Bowling, LG&E and KU vice president, Power Production.

David Link, manager, Research and Development, will also report to Sinclair.