PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
NW Natural announced today that Rick Daniel, President of its wholly
owned subsidiary NW Natural Gas Storage LLC (NWNGS), will be leaving at
the end of January, returning to his home in Canmore, Canada, where he
intends to resume his practice in natural gas storage consulting. Daniel
began consulting with NW Natural in 2007 and became President of NWNGS
in October of 2009 to help build the storage organization.
"Rick did a terrific job of guiding our storage company through the
start-up phase," said Gregg Kantor, President and CEO of NW Natural. "We
now have the people and systems in place to operate our new Gill Ranch
Storage facility near Fresno, California."
Daniel will be replaced by Dave Weber, who will serve on an interim
basis as President of NWNGS, reporting directly to Kantor. Weber has
served as NW Natural's Chief Information Officer since 2001. In November
of last year he became Chief Operating Officer of NWNGS. Weber came to
NW Natural after 15 years at IBM, where he worked in a variety of
leadership positions.
"Dave has the skills to continue to build NWNGS in 2011," said Kantor.
"While we will be doing a search for a permanent replacement for Rick
later this year, Dave’s operational strengths fit perfectly with an
organization in its first year of operation."
About NW Natural -- NW Natural (NYSE:NWN) is headquartered in
Portland, Ore., and provides safe, reliable, cost-effective natural gas
service to about 667,000 residential, commercial, and industrial
customers through 15,000 miles of mains and service lines in western
Oregon and southwestern Washington. It is the largest independent
natural gas utility in the Pacific Northwest. The company has
approximately $2.5 billion in total assets. Since 1989, the company has
operated its 16 Bcf Mist underground storage field in Oregon to serve
its utility customers and the regional interstate storage market. NW
Natural and its subsidiaries currently own and operate approximately 31
Bcf of combined underground gas storage capacity in Oregon and
California. Additional information is available at www.nwnatural.com.
Source: NW Natural
Contact:
NW Natural
Media Contact:
Kim Heiting, 503-220-2366
kah@nwnatural.com
or
Investor
Contact:
Bob Hess, 503-220-2388
bob.hess@nwnatural.com