E. Linn Draper, Jr. (69) was appointed to our board of directors in November 2004. He has been chairman of our compensation committee since 2005 and a member of our safety, health, environmental and sustainability committee since May 2008 (its formation date). He also served as our lead independent director from October 2006 until the merger with Foundation Coal on July 31, 2009. Mr. Draper joined American Electric Power, an electric utility company, as president in 1992 and served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer of AEP from 1993 until his retirement in April 2004. Prior to joining AEP, Mr. Draper worked for Gulf States Utilities Company, an electric utility company, from 1979 to 1992, serving as its chairman of the board of directors, and president and chief executive officer from 1987 to 1992. Mr. Draper has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Cornell University, was a professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and served as Chairman of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations from 2001-2003. As a result of this background, he has served as a nuclear safety expert witness in a number of nuclear plant licensing hearings, testified before committees of both houses of Congress on such matters, and in several public utility rate proceedings. Through his senior executive experience in the energy industry and membership on energy company boards (as described below), and his nuclear science experience, Mr. Draper contributes an understanding and perspective to us on the risk management and safety challenges facing the broader energy industry.
He has served as a director of Temple-Inland Inc., a building products and corrugated packaging company since 2004 (serving as a member of the human resources committee since 2004, chairman of the human resources committee since 2008 and as lead director since 2008); TransCanada Corporation, a pipeline and power generation company, since 2005 (serving as a member of the health, safety and environmental committee since 2005, chairman of this committee since 2007, as a member of their audit committee since 2009, and as a member of the human resources committee from 2005 to 2009); and Alliance Data Systems, Inc., a data management and transaction processing company since 2005 (serving as a member of the human resources committee since 2005 and as chairman of that committee since 2009). Mr. Draper has also served as the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of NorthWestern Corporation, an electric and gas utility since 2004.
Qualifications: Mr. Draper provides valuable insight into Alpha’s customers due to his previous service as the president, chief executive officer, and/or chairman of the board of directors of several large publicly traded utility companies, which are the purchasers of the Company’s primary product, coal. Mr. Draper has significant M&A expertise, safety experience, expertise in the natural resources industry and regulations to which it is subject, as well as expertise in the area of energy companies generally. In addition, Mr. Draper brings significant corporate governance and compensation expertise to our board as a result of his prior service as our lead independent director, chairman of our compensation committee and as a member of our safety, health, environmental, and sustainability committee. Mr. Draper also brings other significant experience and expertise as a result of his approximately seventy-five years of cumulative experience serving on public company boards, five (including Alpha) of which he currently serves on and six other public company boards on which he no longer serves.