Westmoreland Coal Co. announced that CEO Keith E. Alessi will retire. Alessi will remain an employee of the company as CEO Emeritus. Kevin A. Paprzycki, the company’s CFO, has been named CEO, effective December 1. John Schadan has been promoted to president and COO to oversee global operations for the company. Jason Veenstra, who also joined Westmoreland in April 2014 as part of the Canadian acquisition, has been promoted to CFO. Both promotions will be effective December 1. Paprzycki joined Westmoreland as controller and principal accounting officer in June 2006 and was named CFO in April 2008. Schadan joined Westmoreland in April 2014 as senior vice president, Canada operations, was promoted to executive vice president in August 2014 and president—Canada in March. Veenstra joined Westmoreland in April 2014 as CFO—Canada. At Sherritt International, he held roles that included director of business development and CFO for the coal division.
Foresight Energy LP announced that Oscar Martinez, senior vice president and CFO, will resign. His departure is part of the integration plan that combined the corporate functions of Foresight and Murray Energy Corp. James Murphy, CAO, will assume the duties of principal financial officer.
Former coal operator Omer Mason Bunn, 93, of Abingdon, Virginia, passed away on October 28, 2015. He was born June 30, 1922, on Beech Fork in Lavalette, West Virginia. He was a coal operator for 55 years, starting in East Lynn, West Virginia, shortly after his discharge from the Army. He later had mining operations in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. He served for 14 years as a board member on the state of Virginia Port Authority. He was honored as the recipient of West Virginia Coal Miners Hall of Fame in 2005.
International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced that James W. Rubin has joined the firm’s regulatory affairs group in Washington, D.C., as a partner. He joins Dorsey from Dentons U.S. LLP where he was counsel in the global energy sector.
Fenner Dunlop has recently announced that it has restructured the leadership of its global business operations. Edwin Have has been appointed to the role of executive director, Northern Hemisphere. In this role, he will be responsible for ECS Northern Hemisphere/
Americas including Europe, India, North Africa/Middle East and the Americas. Most recently, he was managing director for ECS in EMEA. Cassandra Pan, president, has retired. David Landgren has been appointed executive director, Southern Hemisphere. He will be responsible for ECS Southern Hemisphere/Asia Pacific including Australia, China and South Africa.
Samson announced that after 41 years, Tony Bon will step down as CEO on January 1. Andrea Sturm has been appointed as Bon’s successor and joined the team in November. Bon will remain on staff through the end of 2016 to support Sturm during the transition.
Tony Napier has been hired as Northern Light Technologies’ new business unit manager, global digital solutions. His previous roles span from business owner to CEO of multiple major mining companies in Australia, where he acquired in-depth knowledge of both leaky feeder UHF/VHF and Wi-Fi.
Baldor Electric Co. promoted Ryan Fitts to director of quality. In this role, he will be responsible for leading and directing Baldor’s Corporate Quality program with a focus on addressing customer concerns, particularly around lead times, on-time delivery and root causes of product quality issues. Fitts joined Baldor in 2011 as a member of the lean core team.
