Mr. Socha is our President and Chief Executive Officer. He joined the Company in March 2003. In May 2004, he was named Chairman of our Board of Directors. From 1999 through June 2001, he served as a Senior Vice President of National Vision, Inc. ("NVI"), a retailer of optical products. NVI filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on April 5, 2000 and emerged from bankruptcy on May 31, 2001. Mr. Socha has served as a director of NVI since 1999 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of NVI since May 2002. From June 2001 until March 2003, he was an independent consultant to distressed businesses. Mr. Socha has a B.S. in Mineral Engineering and a M.A. in Corporate Finance, both from the University of Alabama.
Mr. Crown has been a Director since May 2004. He has served since January 2004 as President and Chief Operating Officer of Transload America, LLC, a waste haulage company. Mr. Crown was previously employed by CSX Transportation, a major eastern railroad, from 1966 until he retired in September 2003. From 1999-2003, he served as Vice President-Central Region (1999-2000), Senior Vice President-Transportation (2000-2002), and Executive Vice President (2002-2003). Mr. Crown attended the University of Baltimore.
Mr. FlorJancic has been a director since August, 2006. Mr. FlorJancic is a Principal and Partner at Customer Care Specialists, Inc., a management consulting firm to the coal, coalbed methane, energy and telecommunications industries since 2003. Mr. FlorJancic retired from CONSOL Energy Inc. in 2003 as Executive Vice President. He had been at CONSOL for 30 years and held various positions of operations, safety, coal trading, transportation and distribution, and sales and marketing. He was chief mergers and acquisitions head and an active principal in CONSOL Energy's IPO. Mr. FlorJancic earned his B.S. in Business and his M.B.A. from Indiana University. He also attneded the Executive Management Program at Emory University.
Mr. Kujawa has been a Director since May 2004. Mr. Kujawa previously served as a partner at Arthur Andersen & Co. from 1965 to 1995. When he retired in 1995, he had worldwide management responsibility for services to audit clients in the utility, energy and telecommunications fields. Over the past ten years, Mr. Kujawa has participated extensively in the restructuring and privatization of energy companies around the world. Mr. Kujawa is a Senior Advisor to Cambridge Energy Research Associates, leading their program for Chief Financial Officers and Chief Risk Officers. Mr. Kujawa currently serves on the Board of Directors of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP) and Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. Mr. Kujawa has a B.B.A. (with distinction) and a M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. Mr. Kujawa is a Certified Public Accountant, and has been designated by the Board of Directors as an audit committee financial expert.
Mr. Vipperman has been a director since June, 2005. Mr. Vipperman retired in 2002 after more than 40 years with American Electric Power and its subsidiary companies. When he retired, Mr. Vipperman was serving as Executive Vice President-Shared Services for American Electric Power Services Corporation. He has also served as Chairman of both the Virginia Center for Energy and Economic Development and the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, on the Advisory Board of Norfolk Southern Corporation, and as a Director of the Virginia Coal Council, Shenandoah Life Insurance Company and Roanoke Electric Steel. Mr. Vipperman earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in Industrial Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
= Chairman of the Board
= Chair
= Member
= Independent Director
