News Releases

(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company announced today that Ed Staton, vice president of State Regulation and Rates, and Greg Thomas, vice president of Electric Distribution, will retire in February and March 2016, respectively. Robert Conroy, director of Rates, will be promoted to Staton’s role and John Wolfe, director of Electric System Restoration and Dispatch, will be promoted to vice president of Electric Distribution.

“Ed and Greg have nearly 70 years of service combined. That’s seven decades of knowledge about our utilities and the industry as well as operational, regulatory and management experiences,” said LG&E and KU Chairman, CEO and President Vic Staffieri. “While we continually plan for this kind of generational shift within our company, the dedication and leadership they’ve each shown during their tenures will be greatly missed. We wish both of them the best as they embark on new chapters in their lives.”

Throughout his career with LG&E and KU, Staton has been instrumental in a number of strategic initiatives. Most recently, he oversaw the utilities’ rate cases in Kentucky and Virginia. In his previous role, as vice president of Transmission, he led the utilities through one of the most tumultuous times in the transmission industry, as a series of new processes and procedures were implemented to meet stricter reliability standards.

Staton began his career with Kentucky Utilities Company in 1982 as a student laborer in Substation Construction. He subsequently held positions in the Transmission Engineering, Line Construction, and Service departments and management positions at the company's Eddyville and Elizabethtown offices. He served in senior management roles in Distribution Operations and Transmission before being named vice president of Transmission in 2011.

Staton served on the SERC Reliability Corporation’s board of directors and was a member of the Board Executive and the Human Resource Compensation committees. His civic involvement includes service as a board member of the LaRue County Industrial Foundation and Project Lead the Way, board chairman of Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass in Lexington, and a member of the Kentucky Industrial Development Council. He also has served as vice chairman of the Eddyville Industrial Foundation, president of the Lyon County Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce, a Louisville Junior Achievement classroom instructor, member of the 2012 Leadership Kentucky Class and participant in the Elizabethtown Leadership Program.

Staton holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern Indiana and a master’s degree in business administration from the Gordon Ford School of Business, Western Kentucky University. He also has completed the Executive Management Program in Innovation and Corporate Strategy at the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Thomas began his career as a technical engineer with Kentucky Utilities in the Substation Engineering Department in Pineville. He advanced through KU in various positions of increasing responsibility including industrial and commercial power quality engineer; district manager (Lexington); district manager (Middlesboro); division vice president (Central Kentucky Division); and regional general manager for the Central Bluegrass Region. With the merger of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, Thomas held various leadership positions within Electric Distribution Operations, including director of Distribution Operations for KU and Old Dominion Power, and vice president of Distribution Operations for LGE, KU and ODP, with responsibilities for Gas Distribution Operations. He assumed his current role in 2013.

During his tenure, Thomas served as a co-chair of the company’s employee charitable giving campaign, helping raise more than $1.7 million to benefit people in need across the LG&E and KU service territories. His civic involvement includes service on the board of the American Red Cross, and as a volunteer for Project Warm, the WHAS Crusade for Children and Metro United Way. Thomas is also a graduate of Leadership Kentucky. His industry involvement includes service on the board of directors of the Southeast Electric Exchange, membership in the Edison Electric Institute Operations Group, service on the American Gas Association Executive Council and the Southern Gas Association Executive Committee.

Effective Feb. 1, Conroy will take over responsibility for development and implementation of the state regulatory strategy of the company, which includes maintaining compliance with applicable statutes and regulations at the state and local levels and managing the company’s rates and regulatory function.

Conroy joined LG&E in 1987 as an electrical engineer in Distribution Planning and moved to Generation Planning in 1991. He held various system planning analyst positions in generation until 2000 when he was promoted to group leader, Generation Planning. He was promoted again in 2001 to manager of Generation Planning and became manager of Rates in March 2004. He was promoted to his current position in February 2008.

Conroy earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and an MBA from Indiana University Southeast. He also holds a Professional Engineer license in Kentucky.

Effective March 1, Wolfe will become responsible for all Electric Distribution operations for Louisville Gas and Electric, Kentucky Utilities and Old Dominion Power. This includes Substation Operations and Maintenance, Electric Reliability, Forestry, Engineering Planning and Transportation.

Wolfe was hired in 1991 as a mechanical engineer within Gas Operations. He advanced through various management-level positions in Gas Distribution Operations and Electric Distribution Operations — including group leader of Gas Engineering and Planning; manager of Gas Service Center; manager of Operations Center; director of Distribution Operations — before moving into his current role in 2013.

Wolfe is a graduate of the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
 

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Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve a total of 1.2 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 321,000 natural gas and 400,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 543,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. More information is available at www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.