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| Lance M. Fritz | John Koraleski |
Union Pacific elected Lance M. Fritz chairman, president and CEO effective October 1. Previously, Fritz was president and COO. He succeeds John J. Koraleski as chairman. Koraleski plans to retire September 30 after a 43-year career at Union Pacific in which he served as executive chairman, president and CEO.
A. Verona Dorch has been named executive vice president, chief legal officer, government affairs and corporate secretary of Peabody Energy. Dorch will be a member of Peabody’s executive leadership team. She succeeds Alex Schoch, who retired.
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| A. Verona Dorch | Robert Skaggs |
Cloud Peak Energy announced that Robert Skaggs has been elected to the board of directors.
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| John Herbst | Kelley Platt |
Dr. John Herbst has accepted the position of West Virginia University Department of Mining Engineering chair.
Calvin Kidd has been inducted into the Coal Hall of Fame. He was recognized for his 48-year career working with mining systems and conveyors at Long-Airdox and Continental Conveyor & Equipment Co. Kidd currently works with Quaker Chemical Corp. as director for business development for its mining division. A Calvin Kidd Fellowship Award was established in 2006 and is awarded annually by West Virginia University.
Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) announced that Kelley Platt, president of Western Star Trucks, has been assigned the additional responsibility to serve as chief diversity officer and member of the company’s operating committee.
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| Jason T. McCabe | Richard Bray |
Skelly and Loy hired Environmental Project Manager Jason T. McCabe to provide environmental and geotechnical engineering services, environmental site assessments, and stormwater management and remediation consulting.
Mon Valley Integration appointed Richard “Rick” Bray as business development manager.
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| G. Brian Wells | Abdul Wahab Khair |
Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs announced that G. Brian Wells has been named president of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation (EMLF) for 2015-2016. He concentrates his practice in the area of corporate law, with an emphasis in mineral and energy acquisitions, divestitures and financings. He is licensed to practice law in Kentucky and is based in Wyatt’s Lexington office.
Dr. Abdul Wahab Khair passed away on June 16, 2015. He was a West Virginia University professor who retired from teaching full time in 2009. Wahab earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mining engineering from WVU in 1967 and 1968, respectively. Wahab was extensively involved in both experimental and analytical research, publishing more than 100 technical papers and editing proceedings of both national and international conferences. He developed a number of laboratories at WVU to help guide students in their pursuit of education excellence.
Dr. Donald L. Rasmussen
Dr. Donald L. Rasmussen, an internal medicine specialist who helped spark the 1969 Black Lung Strike, died on July 23, 2015, at the age of 88. After attending medical school at Utah State University, he joined the Army in 1955 as a captain who specialized in internal medicine. He became chief of chest diseases at Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. When he left the Army in 1962, Rasmussen moved to Beckley, West Virginia, and began working at the Appalachian Regional Hospital testing coal miners for pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease. Throughout the 1960s, Rasmussen became involved in groundbreaking research about black lung. In 1969, the American Public Health Association gave Rasmussen its Presidential Award for his exceptional role in the fight against black lung. In 1995, he was named “Civil Libertarian of the Year” by the West Virginia Civil Liberties Union. An article about Rasmussen published by the Beckley Register-Herald in June 2013 reported he had analyzed lung conditions of 40,000 miners during his 50 years in the Mountain State.
