Organization and Structure
Alliance Organization
The FutureGen Industrial Alliance, Inc. is structured as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in order to focus on technology advancement rather than profits. Alliance members contributing to the project do not receive any direct financial returns from participation in FutureGen. All revenue from the sale of any marketable byproducts will be returned to the non-profit. This arrangement enables the Alliance members to focus on developing innovative approaches to generating electricity from coal in a cleaner way than ever envisioned. The non-profit structure will enable the Alliance to take more risk in experimenting with advanced technologies than would be the case if traditional measures of financial return were considered.
Board Members
| Steven Winberg Chairman of the Board |
Greg A. Walker Secretary and Treasurer |
| Paul W. Thompson Member at Large |
Maha Mahasenan Member at Large |
| Frederick Palmer Member at Large |
Mick Buffier Member at Large |
| Ian Hall Member at Large |
|
| Management Team | |
| Kenneth K. Humphreys Chief Executive Officer |
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Steve Winberg – Chairman of the board
Steve Winberg is the General Manager for CONSOL Energy Research & Development and has 28 years of experience in the energy industry, ranging from power generation equipment design and installation to use of innovative fuels. Steve began his career with Foster Wheeler as a start-up engineer on coal-fired utility boilers. He spent 14 years in the natural gas industry working on various environmental issues including co-firing, re-burn, and natural gas compressor compliance. He represented the gas industry on EPA’s Acid Rain Advisory Committee and participated in various regulatory rulemaking initiatives involving end-use application of natural gas.
Steve has a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from SUNY Maritime College and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.
Greg A. Walker – Secretary and Treasurer
Greg Walker assumed the position of Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Foundation Coal in July 2004. Effective August 1, 2009, Foundation Coal Corporation was merged into its parent company, Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. In this position he oversees the legal, land, environmental and government affairs functions of a major U.S. coal producer. He has more than 25 years of experience with legal and regulatory issues in the domestic and international mining and energy sectors.
Greg has a J.D. degree from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Geology and Environmental Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Paul W. Thompson – Member at Large
Paul Thompson is Senior Vice President of Energy Services at LG&E and KU Energy LLC where he is responsible for generation, energy marketing, and transmission operations. LG&E and KU Energy LLC is wholly owned by PPL Corporation. Paul held various positions at Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, since 1991, including Group Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Retail Electric Business, and Vice President of Business Development. Previously he served in several management positions for Koch Industries and Lone Star Technologies (a former Northwest Industries subsidiary).
Paul holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.
Maha Mahasenan – Member at Large
Maha Mahasenan is Principal Advisor – Policy & Strategy at Hydrogen Energy California LLC, a Rio Tinto JV which is developing a low-carbon baseload power project in Kern County, California. His responsibilities include liaising with regulatory and policy-making bodies on energy and climate policy, developing policy structures and incentives for clean electricity generation, and coordinating various project applications and filings in collaboration with other project partners. Previously, he was at Rio Tinto Energy America (now Cloud Peak Energy), where he was responsible for managing business and technology impacts of environmental regulation and legislation. He serves on the Technical and Steering Committees of the Coal Utilization Research Council and is also an appointee to the University of Wyoming Energy Resources Council.
Maha has degrees in Engineering in Public Policy and Mechanical Engineering.
Frederick Palmer – Member at Large
Fred Palmer is Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Peabody Energy where he is responsible for advancing state and federal policies related to the production and use of coal. Prior to joining Peabody, Fred served as Of Counsel at Shook, Hardy, and Bacon in Washington, DC, and as General Manager, CEO, and General Counsel of the Western Fuels Association. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the National Coal Council serving on the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Coal Policy Committee. Fred is a 2004 recipient of the Erskine Ramsay Medal Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. He has served on various professional boards with roles including Chairman of the Environmental Information Council, President of the Board of Directors of the Greening Earth Society, and Chair of the Climate Change Task Force for the National Mining Association.
Fred holds J.D. and B.A degrees from the University of Arizona.
Mick Buffier – Member at Large
Mr. Buffier joined Xstrata Coal in February 2001 and has over 30 years experience in the coal mining industry. He holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) from Sydney University and a Masters of Business Administration from Newcastle University.
Appointed Group Executive, Xstrata Coal in March 2009, Mr Buffier is responsible for Corporate Affairs, Government Relations and Sustainable Development across Xstrata’s global coal operations.
Prior to this Mr Buffier was Chief Operating Officer of Xstrata’s coal mining operations in NSW, a position he held from 2002. Before joining Xstrata, Mr Buffier held various positions including Mining Engineer, Senior Mining Engineer, Production Manager, Mine Manager and General Manager.
Mr Buffier is the Chairman of the NSW Minerals Council, a member of the Executive Committee and the Coal Committee. He is a Board member of Australian Coal Association Low Emission Technologies Pty Ltd (ACALET) and the National Low Emission Coal Council R&D Board (NLECC). Mr Buffier is also a Ministerial appointee to the NSW Clean Coal Council. He is an Alternate Director of the World Coal Institute and an Associate of the Coal Industry Advisory Board.
Ian Hall – Member at Large
Ian Hall is Regional Head Strategy for Anglo American’s Thermal Coal business unit. Ian started his career with Eskom, the national electricity utility in South Africa, where he worked on construction of coal-fired power plants. He joined Anglo American in 1995 and was the General Manager of one of its subsidiary companies in the manufacturing industry. Since 1999 he has had various roles in Anglo American’s coal businesses in marketing, business development and strategy functions. This included managing the marketing and logistics function for a large joint venture mining operation in Colombia and development of coal bed methane and power generation opportunities.
Ian has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and is a registered Professional Engineer. He represents Anglo American on the Board of the SA Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage, the IEA’s Clean Coal Centre and the South African Coal Roadmap project.
Kenneth K. Humphreys – Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth K. Humphreys is chief executive officer of the FutureGen Alliance, a non-profit international consortium of companies that will build and operate the CO2 pipeline and storage network for the FutureGen 2.0 clean energy project in the U.S.
Humphreys has led the Alliance since September 2010, when the U.S. Department of Energy restructured the FutureGen project to be the world’s first large-scale, near-zero emissions power plant using carbon capture and storage (CCS) and oxy-combustion technologies. Previously, Humphreys served as the Alliance’s managing director.
Prior to his role with the Alliance, Humphreys was Director of the Carbon Management Initiative and was Sustainable Technology Development Chief Engineer at Battelle. He has spent the last 20 years working in the energy sector on public and private sector ventures and is a recognized expert in CCS technology.
Humphreys graduated from West Virginia University and has a master’s degree in engineering management from Washington State University.
