CEO Shakeup at Chugach Electric
Arthur Miller, Acting CEO
Chugach Electric Association
An acting CEO is in place after Chugach Electric Association backed out of hiring a permanent successor for the retiring Lee Thibert.
The utility’s CEO announced last July that he would retire in about nine months. With the deadline approaching, Chugach is improvising a succession plan.
In March, Chugach named an energy executive from Minnesota as the new CEO, replacing Lee Thibert effective April 11. However, one week before the handover, the board of directors announced they would not move forward with hiring Hal Halpern after all. No explanation was given.
Chugach had partnered with JK Executive Strategies to search for a new CEO. The search led them to Two Harbors, Minnesota, where Halpern runs Cooperative Light & Power. Turns out Halpern won’t have to move to Alaska.
A day after the retraction, the board of directors announced an acting CEO: Arthur Miller, a thirty-two-year veteran of the power co-op, most recently serving as executive vice president of regulatory and external affairs.
Miller earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Wyoming. He is credited with assisting Thibert in the acquisition of Municipal Light & Power.
Thibert’s retirement is still on track for the end of April, and Chugach says the outgoing CEO will consult until a new executive search settles on a permanent successor.
Thibert (also a native Minnesotan, incidentally) began working for Chugach in 1987 and held a variety of senior management positions before being named CEO in 2016, succeeding Brad Evans, who was Chugach CEO for eight years.
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