Our 2024 Winter Meeting Speakers

Senate President Craig Blair is a Classified Certified Water Specialist Class V, Master Electrician, Master Plumber and Refrigeration Engineer. The Martinsburg native is married to Andrea Dendy Blair and they have two children. His affiliations include: Member, National Rifle Association; West Virginia Citizens Defense League; and Eastern Panhandle Business Association. He was elected to the House from 2002 to 2008 and to the Senate from 2012-2020. His legislative positions include: Chair, Committee on Finance, 83rd and 84th Legislatures; Vice Chair, Committee on Education, 84th Legislature; Majority Whip, 83rd Legislature; Chair, Committee on Government Organization, 82nd and 83rd Legislatures.

Derek Brown serves as the Director of Cybersecurity & Infrastructure for EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the United States. He also sits on the Board of the CISO Executive Network, an organization that brings CISO’s across industries together to help solve the challenges of Cybersecurity.  Throughout his 20+ years of experience, he has held roles as CISO for a large hospital system in Pennsylvania, CTO for an organization that brought industry and law enforcement together investigating cybercrime and has assisted various companies developing their cybersecurity programs and architectures.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) was elected by the people of West Virginia to the United States Senate in 2014, and re-elected in 2020. She is the first female U.S. senator in West Virginia’s history and was elected with the largest margin of victory for a Republican in state history—winning more than 70 percent of the vote and all 55 counties, surpassing the previous mark she set in 2014 when she won more than 62 percent of the vote and all 55 counties. After serving West Virginia’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years, and as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates for four years prior, Senator Capito decided to run for Senate to be an even stronger voice for the Mountain State. She also saw an opportunity to restore order to a Senate stuck in gridlock for far too long.
She believes that today’s challenges demand bipartisan solutions and cooperation across the aisle to advance legislation that benefits West Virginia and the country as a whole. Senator Capito is committed to being accessible and responsive to her fellow West Virginians and regularly travels, with proper health and safety precautions in place, to hear from and meet with West Virginians.
Senator Capito serves on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee; and the Rules and Administration Committee. This committee portfolio puts her in a strong position to create new opportunities in the Mountain State and fight for West Virginia priorities, jobs, and families. As a member of the Committee on Appropriations, Senator Capito works to ensure West Virginia’s priorities are represented when our nation’s funding decisions are made. During her time on the committee, she has served as chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee, the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, and the Homeland Security Subcommittee. Senator Capito currently serves as the top Republican on the Homeland Security Subcommittee, where she oversees funding for a range of national security resources and agencies. She has been a member of the Appropriations Committee since she became a Senator in 2015. On the EPW Committee, the senator serves as Ranking Member. As the top Republican on the committee, Ranking Member Capito has advocated for policies that protect vital West Virginia energy and manufacturing jobs and encourage investment in West Virginia’s infrastructure. As a leader on the EPW Committee, Ranking Member Capito is committed to promoting a commonsense regulatory strategy and protecting affordable, reliable energy production; building our nation’s infrastructure, and encourage economic development. She has been a member of the EPW Committee since she became a Senator in 2015.
On the Commerce Committee, Senator Capito oversees ways to address many issues that are critical to West Virginia, most notably broadband expansion, which she has been a leading voice on since she came to Congress. This committee assignment allows Senator Capito to continue advocating for improved connectivity in West Virginia. A lifelong West Virginian herself, Senator Capito was born in Glen Dale in the Northern Panhandle. She holds a B.S. in Zoology from Duke University and a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia. She and her husband Charles L. Capito Jr. reside in Charleston. They have three adult children: two sons, Charles (wife Laura) and Moore, and one daughter, Shelley (husband Colin Macleod). They have also been blessed with seven grandchildren: Celia, Charlie, Eliza, Rose, Arch, Macaulay, and Lewis.

Neil Chatterjee is a former Commissioner and Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and has deep ties in Washington and across the industry, with extensive experience across the energy landscape both domestically and internationally. He is respected for his ability to strike compromise and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.   In his time on the Hill and at FERC, Neil built a reputation as a bipartisan operator who builds alliances and cuts through red tape with an eye on always promoting innovation. Neil’s significant knowledge and experience is derived from operating at the highest levels of government and as such, is able to provide clients valuable insights and counsel when navigating the highly regulated energy industry.   While at FERC, Neil championed several strategic initiatives, including streamlining and improving FERC’s liquified natural gas application review and approval process, bolstering power grid reliability and resilience, and boosting renewable resources’ ability to compete in regional power markets and for the reduction of carbon emissions.  Neil is a policy reformer who broke down market barriers for the entrance of new technologies, particularly for low-carbon technologies. He has been an advocate for harnessing technology to mitigate physical and cyber threats to critical energy infrastructure.   Prior to his time at the Commission, Neil served as an advisor to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) where he aided in the passage of major energy, highway, and agriculture legislation. Neil also has experience working as a principal in government relations for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He began his career as a staff member on the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Jim Crews has been Vice President of Northeast Business Development for MPLX since 2011. Previously, he held various positions with NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage-NGT&S (and its predecessor Columbia Gas Transmission) from 1995 to 2011. From 1982 to 1985 he worked at Cabot Oil and Gas’ drilling and production division in Charleston, W. Va. In 1985 he served as a field service engineer for Babcock and Wilcox Nuclear Power in Lynchburg, Va. From 1987 to 1995 he worked in engineering, storage and planning for Washington Gas Light Company in Washington D.C.  He is a past president of WVONGA. Crews received a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from WVU and is a registered professional mechanical engineer in Virginia and Ohio.

Dr. Dave Dampier has been Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences at Marshall University since August 2020. In this role, he is responsible for supervision of four academic departments with 37 faculty offering 8 undergraduate degrees and 8 graduate degrees. Additionally, the college has a research portfolio of over $15 Million. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Cyber Security (ICS), a university level center focusing on Research, Teaching and Outreach since October 2021. The ICS is responsible for research in cyber security and has a portfolio of over $7 Million. Prior to Marshall, Dr. Dampier served as Chair of the Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security at U.T. San Antonio. Prior to that he served as Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and founding director of the Distributed Analytics and Security Institute at Mississippi State University. He has over 70 peer reviewed publications and nearly $60M in external funding. Before academia, he spent 20 years in the Army culminating his career as an Army Scientist. He has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at El Paso, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School. His research and teaching interests are in Cyber Security, Digital Forensics and applications of Software Engineering.

Gregory Floerke is executive vice president and chief operating officer of MPLX GP LLC.

Floerke joined MPLX in 2015, at the time of the MPLX and MarkWest combination. He joined MarkWest in 2013 as senior vice president, Northeast region. He was named executive vice president and chief commercial officer in 2015 and named executive vice president, gathering and processing in 2016. In 2020, he was named chief operating officer and executive vice president, Gathering & Processing, Trucks & Rail and assumed his current position in 2021. Prior to joining MarkWest, Floerke served as vice president, Eastern region for Access Midstream Partners. He has a broad background spanning multiple disciplines and industries for more than 25 years, including senior management roles at Williams, where he began his career, as well as MasTec, Alberici, One Communications, and Chesapeake Midstream.  Floerke graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering. He is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

Mary Friend has been the Director of the Pipeline Safety Division of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia since 2014.   She is responsible for managing the pipeline safety program, scheduling the inspections, enforcement of pipeline regulations and working with other Federal and State authorities.   Mary joined the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s Pipeline Safety Office of Training and Qualification as a Pipeline Safety Specialist (Instructor) in October 2009.   She developed and taught courses for training Federal and State pipeline inspectors.  Mary began her career as a geologist in the Exploration and Development Department at Columbia Gas Transmission in Charleston, WV.  During her 30 years at Columbia, she worked a variety of jobs, including exploration and production, underground gas storage, pipeline operations, and pipeline safety affording her extensive gas transmission pipeline experience.  She retired from Columbia in October of 2009 as a senior engineer in Pipeline Safety.  Mary earned a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and a master’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.  She has been an active member of the Gas Piping Technology Committee since 2006, and is currently the acting 2^nd vice chair.    Mary has participated in the development of industry standards such as the American Petroleum Institute’s RP 1170 for Gas Storage in Caverns, RP 1171 for Gas Storage in Depleted Reservoirs and Aquifers, and API RP 1182 for Construction, Operations and Maintenance of Large Diameter Rural Gas Gathering lines.  Mary is currently the vice chair of NAPSR.  As a member of NAPSR, she serves on many internal committees, and was awarded the 2018 Chairman’s award for Outstanding Service for her many contributions to improving pipeline safety.

Steve Gandee is a regional vice president, commercial lines, on the Energy and State Government Team. He is responsible for managing employees who specialize in underwriting, claims management, return to work, nursing and safety and loss control for our specialized Energy and State Government team. He has been a leader of Encova Insurance’s expansion into other states.  Steve Gandee has more than 18 years of experience in workers’ compensation insurance and underwriting. His prior positions have most recently included assistant vice president of underwriting operations within Encova. While working in underwriting operations, Gandee lead the underwriting technical team, drafted policy documents, developed guidelines, and furthered state and product expansion which contributed to Encova’s profitable growth. Gandee has also had prior claims experience with BrickStreet and at the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission. Gandee attended West Virginia University where he obtained a master’s degree in legal studies and bachelor of arts in political sciences.

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw is an Attorney and native of Charleston. He and his wife, Kirsten, are parents to Kathryn and Rebecca. He was educated at West Virginia University, B.S.; West Virginia University College of Law, J.D. and University of Notre Dame, Ph.D. in Chemistry. He is a member of: West Virginia State Bar; West Virginia Bar Association; West Virginia Farm Bureau; American Chemical Society; and National Association of Parliamentarians. Elected to the House from 2014 to 2020, he has served as: Speaker of the House, 83rd and 84th Legislatures; Chair, Committee on Enrolled Bills, 83rd Legislature; Vice Chair, Committee on the Judiciary, 83rd Legislature.

Rick Hill is a senior safety and loss control consultant with Encova Insurance, primarily servicing West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. He is responsible for partnering with underwriters, agents and clients to evaluate risk, reduce losses and improve operations in an effort to increase productivity and profitability.  Rick has over 30 years of experience in the insurance and safety industries. He previously worked as a safety manager for multiple companies, including United Technologies Corporation, Pratt & Whitney and Weyerhaeuser. Rick also has experience in heavy manufacturing, machine shop environments, industrial plating operations, chemical cleaning, aerospace/aviation maintenance and engineered wood products industries. He specializes in workers’ compensation case management, OSHA recordkeeping, environmental health and safety (EHS) management systems implementation and maintenance, culture enrichment and EHS compliance auditing.  Rick received his Bachelor of Science degree in safety engineering technology from Fairmont State University and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Findlay. He holds professional designations of Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA) and Registered Environmental Manager (REM). Rick is a professional member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). He is an OSHA 10- and 30-hour general industry and construction instructor and serves as an Encova defensive driving course instructor. Additionally, he is an AWARE Oil and Gas Safety and Health Hazard Awareness training instructor.

Mike John founded NNE in 2009 and continues to serve as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. John previously served as Vice President of Operations of the Eastern Division for Chesapeake Energy from 2005-2009. Prior to joining Chesapeake Energy, Mr. John held various senior executive roles at Triana Energy/Columbia Natural Resources, where he also served on the company’s Board of Directors until Columbia Natural Resources was sold to Chesapeake in 2005. During this time with Chesapeake, Mr. John was instrumental in the drilling, completion, and operation of Chesapeake’s initial 100 horizontal Marcellus wells in Appalachia. Mr. John is a West Virginia native and a 1981 graduate of West Virginia University with a degree in petroleum engineering. He serves on the Board of Directors for the WVU Alumni Association and resides in Charleston, WV with his family.

James C. Justice, II was born April 27, 1951, to James Conley Justice and Edna Ruth Justice. He attended Raleigh County public schools and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1969, attended Greenbrier Military Academy as a post graduate. Governor Justice went to Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and was captain of the golf team for two years before earning his undergraduate degree and a Masters in Business Administration.  The Governor joined his family’s business in 1976. Because of his strong interest in nature and the outdoors, he started Justice Family Farms in 1977 in beautiful Monroe County, West Virginia. Under his direction, Justice Farming Operations has grown to be a major agricultural enterprise. His companies farm more than 50,000 acres of corn, wheat and soybeans in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Gov. Justice is the largest farmer east of the Mississippi River.  Upon the death of his father in 1993, and over the next 15 years, Jim launched a massive expansion of multiple businesses which included significant coal reserve expansion, Christmas tree farms, cotton gins, turfgrass operations, golf courses, timber enhancement and land projects just to mention a few. Before being elected governor, Jim was the president and CEO of 102 different companies.  Governor Justice spent his career creating thousands of jobs and understands how to put people to work.
In 2009, Justice rescued The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, from bankruptcy. He brought major events like the PGA Tour, training camps for the NFL and NBA, and countless high-profile acts and conferences to The Greenbrier. As governor, he wants to do everything possible to put West Virginia in a positive light.  Jim has carried on his family’s tradition of being major supporters of youth programs in Southern West Virginia. Since 1992 he has been President of Beckley Little League. He has coached basketball teams of all ages for the past 36 years and is currently the head girls and boys basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, WV. On November 29, 2016, Jim was honored when he coached his 1,000th career win in basketball.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was sworn into the United States Senate on November 15, 2010 to fill the seat left vacant by the late Senator Robert C. Byrd. For Senator Manchin, serving as West Virginia’s Senator is truly an honor and a privilege. Born and raised in the small coal mining town of Farmington, W.Va., Sen. Manchin grew up learning the values that all West Virginians share — family, common sense, fairness and hard work. As a small businessman, he learned firsthand from his grandfather, Papa Joe, who was an Italian immigrant and the town grocer, the importance of serving the public. As a young man, his beloved grandmother, Mama Kay, inspired Senator Manchin’s belief in public service through her unflagging compassion and desire to help those less fortunate. From his days as a state legislator to his six years as Governor to his current role, Senator Manchin has always been committed to his philosophy of “retail government” — in other words, connecting with all of his constituents and making service to them his top priority. As a Senator, Joe Manchin is committed to bringing this same spirit of bipartisanship to Washington. As he has done throughout his entire life, he remains committed to working with Republicans and Democrats to find commonsense solutions to the problems our country faces and is working hard to usher in a new bipartisan spirit in the Senate and Congress. Legislatively, job creation is Senator Manchin’s top priority and he believes that government should act as a partner, not an adversary, in helping to create the environment that produces good American jobs. Senator Manchin also firmly believes that our nation can and must do what he did in West Virginia – put our fiscal house in order. He believes we must find commonsense ways to cut spending while keeping our promises to our seniors and veterans by protecting Social Security and Medicare. Senator Manchin is strongly committed to developing a balanced national energy plan that utilizes all of our resources and recognizes that fossil fuels will be a vital part of our energy mix for decades to come. He believes that a balanced, commonsense approach that considers the needs of our environment and the demands of our economy, can and must be developed if we are to achieve energy independence within this generation. Senator Manchin currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and also serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – four critical committees that tackle the important work of addressing our nation’s energy needs, overseeing discretionary spending, standing up for our Veterans, and defending our nation. Senator Manchin is an avid pilot, outdoorsman, hunter, angler and motorcyclist. He has been married for more than four decades to the former Gayle Conelly of Beckley. They have three children: Heather, Joseph IV and Brooke, and are the proud grandparents of 10.

Adam Scott is a retired West Virginia State Police Sergeant where he served for 21 years. During his law enforcement career, Adam specialized in Advanced Interview and Interrogation, Drug Interdiction, Crimes Against Children Investigation and was a member of the West Virginia Joint Terrorism Taskforce, West Virginia Children’s Justice Taskforce and the West Virginia Troopers Association. He is also a United States Coast Guard Veteran where he served as a Port Security Unit Specialist during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Liberty Shield and Operation Nobel Eagle activation deployments. After 9-11, Adam specialized in Critical Infrastructure Security and helped implement the Maritime Transportation Security Act. He also conducted numerous search and rescue missions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, receiving unit and individual commendations. Adam received his Bachelor Degrees in Criminal Justice and Political Science from West Virginia State University and his Associates Degree in Police Science from Marshall University. For the last seven years, Adam has served as the Security Operations Coordinator for Antero Resources. He is also a Fusion Liaison Officer for the West Virginia Fusion Center, specializing in the area of Energy Infrastructure Security.

Curtis Wilkerson founded Orion Strategies in 2006 with a vision of creating a full-service firm which would enable consistent quality and dependable results. Wilkerson has guided the company through layered expansions with experienced teams in multiple states. Understanding that clients look beyond borders for both policy and economic development, he developed a fully integrated structure within the firm to maximize talent.  Wilkerson has advised numerous organizations and companies as well as state, regional and national trade associations. These efforts include policy influence, permitting, tax abatement, environmental and crisis communication.  Prior to founding Orion Strategies, Wilkerson served as political director for a public relations firm and had consulted for campaigns in Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia. He has received numerous awards including being named a Young Gun.  Wilkerson has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History.