Board of Directors


Meet Our Executive Committee

The Executive Committee ensures that SGA’s executive initiatives serve member company needs. Members of the Executive Committee provide ongoing insight and guidance to SGA for development and evolution of programming, events and training.

Luke Litteken

Xcel Energy, Chair

Luke Litteken is Sr. Vice President, of the Natural Gas Business Unit at Xcel Energy in Denver, Colorado.  He is responsible for all aspects of the business unit including: engineering, operations and maintenance of the local gas distribution and high-pressure systems, system reliability, emergency response, damage prevention, geospatial, public safety, gas plants, gas storage fields, compliance, and customer satisfaction over geographically dispersed territories in seven states, encompassing more than 2.1 million natural gas customers. 

Prior to working at Xcel Energy, Luke spent 25 years with CenterPoint Energy in Minneapolis.  He left CenterPoint Energy while he was in the role of District Director, Gas Operations, responsible for safe and reliable natural gas delivery to residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout Minnesota.

Luke serves on the SGA Safety Council, SGA Executive Committee and board of directors, Colorado Oil & Gas Association board of directors, Center for energy and Workforce Development (CEWD) board of directors, American Red Cross Northern Colorado board of directors, Gold Shovel Association board of directors, and AGA Managing Committee.

Luke and his family reside in Castle Rock, CO.

Education:

Augsburg College, BA Business Administration
Augsburg College, MBA

 

Professional Licenses:

City of Minneapolis Master Gasfitter
City of Minneapolis Master Refrigeration
City of Minneapolis Master Warm Air

Scott Hallam

Williams Companies, First Vice Chair

Scott Hallam became Senior Vice President of Williams’ Transmission & Gulf of Mexico Operating Area in January 2020. Williams’ Transmission & Gulf of Mexico Operating Area includes Williams’ Eastern Interstates, Northwest Pipeline, and its Gulf West and Gulf East franchises.

Prior to his current role, Hallam served as Senior Vice President, Atlantic-Gulf, which included responsibility for Eastern interstates and the Gulf West and Gulf East franchises. He also served as Vice President and General Manager of Eastern Interstates in the Atlantic-Gulf Operating Area, where he was responsible for overall operations and commercial activities for Transco Pipeline, Cardinal Pipeline and Pine Needle LNG.

Hallam also served as Vice President over operational activities in Williams’ Northeast G&P Operating Area. Prior to that, he led development and operations in the Utica as a General Manager for Access Midstream and also served in various leadership capacities in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors with Dominion Energy in transmission and distribution.

Education
Hallam holds an MBA in organizational leadership, a master’s in environmental, health and safety management and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology. He is a certified project management professional and Six Sigma Black Belt.

Industry/Community Leadership
Hallam is a member of the American Petroleum Institute, the Project Management Institute and the Air and Waste Management Association. He is a board member of the Southern Gas Association and the United Way of Greater Houston. Hallam is also a member of the Board of Directors for The Santiago Partnership.

Cristie Neller headshot

Cristie Neller

BHE GT&S, Second Vice Chair

Cristie D. Neller is the vice president of Administrative Services for BHE GT&S. With corporate headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, BHE GT&S is an integrated interstate gas transmission and storage company of over 1,600 employees across ten states.

In her current role with BHE GT&S, she has responsibilities for human resources, supply chain, fleet, facilities and IT business related services along with Business Transformation.

Before joining BHE GT&S, Neller began her career in energy as a co-op at Virginia Power during college. After graduation, she worked at Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. in Houston, Texas and in Charlottesville, Virginia. She joined Dominion Energy in 1998 as a performance engineer at Chesapeake Energy Center. Over the next decade, she held numerous positions with Dominion Energy at Chesapeake, Yorktown and Bellemeade Power Stations and in power generation at Innsbrook. During this period, she also earned her Six Sigma Black Belt. In 2007, Neller was named manager of Fossil & Hydro Operations & Maintenance and became the station director of Clover Power Station in 2009.

In November 2014, she was promoted to vice president of Eastern Pipeline Engineering & Construction for Dominion Energy. In this role, she oversaw the group responsible for technical services and capital construction activities to maintain and grow the gas transmission pipeline and storage assets throughout the East Coast of the United States. She assumed her role as the vice president of Dominion Energy’s Western Pipeline Operations in October 2019 where she led the team providing natural gas transportation and underground storage services in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. In November 2020, she moved to BHE GT&S as vice president of Administrative Services.

She has served on Christopher Newport University Business School’s Board of Advisors, the Southern Gas Association Executive Council, the Utah Community Investment Board and as past chair of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Pipeline Safety Committee and Underground Storage Committee. She currently serves on the executive board of FIRST Robotics for VA/MD/DC and the Southern Gas Association Board of Directors and executive team as Secretary/Treasurer.

Neller earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and her MBA from the College of William and Mary.

Sasha Weintraub headshot

Sasha Weintraub

Duke Energy Corporation, Secretary / Treasurer

As senior vice president and president of Duke Energy’s natural gas business, Sasha Weintraub is responsible for the company’s regulated natural gas operations in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. In addition, he leads the gas commercial operations, which includes supply, wholesale marketing, transportation and pipeline services, field customer service, sales and delivery, and business development.

Previously, Weintraub served as Duke Energy’s senior vice president of customer solutions. He was responsible for aligning customer-focused products and services to deliver a personalized end-to-end customer experience that positions Duke Energy for long-term growth. His duties included retail programs, enhanced basic services, rate design and analysis, customer regulatory strategy and analytics, and data analytics. He served in this role from 2015 to 2018.

Prior to that, Weintraub served as senior vice president of market solutions. In addition to the above, he was responsible for economic development, large business customers and wholesale power sales for the company. As vice president, fuels and systems optimization, he led the organization responsible for the purchase and delivery of coal, natural gas and oil to Duke Energy’s generation fleet, as well as the wholesale trading function related to power and natural gas.

He joined Progress Energy in 1999 and held various leadership roles, including director of business operations and strategic planning, and director of coal marketing and trading. Following the Duke Energy/Progress Energy merger in July 2012, he was named vice president of fuels and systems optimization for Duke Energy.

A native of New York City, Weintraub earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a master’s degree in engineering from Columbia University and a doctorate degree in engineering from North Carolina State University. He is also a lecturer at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Weintraub currently serves on the boards of directors of TerraGo and the American Gas Association. He is a board member of Envision Charlotte and Charlotte Hearing and Speech Center. He also serves on the board of trustees for UNC Charlotte. Weintraub has attended several Advanced Management courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. He also completed an executive nuclear technology course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Weintraub and his wife, Nichelle, have three daughters. They both served on the board of directors for the Cleft Palate Foundation.

Steve Lindsey Headshot

Steven Lindsey

Spire Inc., Immediate Past Chair 2022

Steve Lindsey is executive vice president and chief operating officer for Spire. Steve spent 23 years in the natural gas utility business at AGL Resources. Most recently he served as president of Atlanta Gas Light, Chattanooga Gas and Florida City Gas and senior vice president of southern operations for AGL Resources. 

Steve holds a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, and was recently named “Who’s Who in Energy” by the St. Louis Business Journal. In the industry, he serves as a board member of the Southern Gas Association. Carrying on Spire’s tradition of community service, his board service includes the Regional Business Council, Missouri Chamber of Commerce, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis Sports Commission, Missouri Energy Development Association and Kansas City Civic Council.

Meet Our Board of Directors

Luke Litteken
Chair
Senior Vice President, Gas, Xcel Energy
Scott Hallam
First Vice Chair
Senior Vice President, Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, The Williams Companies
Cristie Neller
Second Vice Chair
VP Administrative Services, BHE GT&S
Sasha Weintraub
Secretary / Treasurer
SVP & President, Natural Gas Business, Duke Energy Corporation
Steve Lindsey
Immediate Past Chair 2022
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Spire, Inc.
Suzanne Ogle
SGA President
President & CEO, Southern Gas Association
Eric J. Amundsen
Director
Group Sr. VP Operations, Energy Transfer Company
Bryan Batson
Director
EVP and Chief External Public Affairs Officer, Southern Company Gas
Lonnie Bellar
Director
Chief Operating Officer, LG&E and KU Energy LLC
Rodney Blevins
Director
President-Gas Distribution, Dominion Energy
Lori Bruck
Director
Chief Marketing Officer, Tenaska Marketing Group
Darin Carroll
Director
Sr. Vice President, Natural Gas Business, CenterPoint Energy
Stan Chapman
Director
EVP & President - US Natural Gas Pipelines, TC USA Pipeline Services, LLC
Diana Charletta
Director
President & COO, Equitrans Midstream
Arthur Corbin
Director
President & CEO, Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia
Derrick A. Dickens
Director
Sr. Vice President & COO, BGE
Nick Gardner
Director
VP of Natural Gas Utilities, Black Hills Energy
Carl Haga
Director
Vice President, Commercial, Kinder Morgan
Jeff Householder
Director
President & CEO, Chesapeake Utilities
Bobby Huffman
Director
VP U.S. Marketing, Southern Region, Enbridge, Inc.
Blue Jenkins
Director
President, Washington Gas
Brian Langille
Director
Interim Director, Clearwater Gas System
Richard Lujan, P.E.
Director
Interim Vice President, Gas Solutions, CPS Energy
Tom Mathiasmeier
Director
President, Global Gas, Power & LNG, ConocoPhillips
Becky Palmer
Director
President, West Texas Division, Atmos Energy
Shawn Patterson
Director
President & CEO, Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline
Jeff Sanderson
Director
SVP, Operations, Engineering & Construction, Boardwalk Pipeline
Chuck Shafer
Director
VP Health, Safety & Environmental Execution, NiSource
Kent Shortridge
Director
SVP of Operations & Customer Service, ONE Gas, Inc.
Alonzo Weaver
Director
Senior Vice President / Chief Operating Officer, Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division
Jason Weekley
Director
SVP and Chief Operation Officer, Summit Utilities
Helen Wesley
Director
President, Peoples Gas
Marlan Jarzombek
GMRC Board Chair
Atmos Energy
Gerald Sims
Associate Director
National Sales Manager, Health Consultants Incorporated
Scott Kranstuber
Associate Director
VP of Sales and Marketing, Sensit Technologies
Chris Wykle
Associate Director
VP Gas Sales, Sensus
John Wilson
Associate Director
Sr. Vice President, Business Development, ENTRUST Solutions Group
Jimmy Staton
Ex-Officio; Past Chair 2021
President & CEO, Santee Cooper
Adrian Chapman
Ex-Officio; Past Chair 2019
Retired
Caron A. Lawhorn
Ex-Officio; Past Chair 2018
SVP & CFO, ONE Gas, Inc.
Kimberly Watson
Ex-Officio; Past Chair 2017
President, Interstate Gas Pipelines, Kinder Morgan

Councils

Executive Council

The purpose of the Executive Council is to provide insight to SGA for use in development and evolution of its executive initiatives so that they are properly aligned with member company needs.

Pipeline Safety Council

The Pipeline Safety Council will provide leadership while working with operators and stakeholders to enhance the safe operation of our pipelines.

Diversity and Inclusion Council

The purpose of the Inclusion and Diversity Council is to foster innovative actions that help members to embed inclusion and diversity in their long-term business strategy

Board Committees

SGA has 6 board-level committees: 5 that are identified in the by-laws and 1 that is not. The President & CEO provides committee member recommendations to the committee chairs. The Board Chair approves the final committee make-up.