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