Williams Realigns Leadership for Northeast Gathering, Processing Operations
Williams and Williams Partners have realigned the companies’ executive leadership responsibilities designed to further enhance operating and commercial capabilities.
The realignment results in new leaders for the companies’ Northeast gathering and processing operating area and Williams’ corporate strategic development function. As a result, the following changes will become effective immediately:
- Jim Scheel, 49, will serve as senior vice president of the Northeast gathering and processing operating area, with responsibility for gathering and processing business in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions.
- Frank Billings, 51, will serve as senior vice president of corporate strategic development, with responsibility for enterprise-level business development and customer relationship management. Billings most recently led the Northeast gathering and processing area.
Both Scheel and Billings will continue to report to Alan Armstrong, president and CEO of Williams and CEO of the general partner of Williams Partners.
“As the build-out of our gathering and processing business in the Marcellus-Utica advances, we’re at a point where we realize the greatest value by having Northeast-region leadership with deep operational experience,” Armstrong said. “Jim, in his 25 years at Williams, has been instrumental in the operations and engineering on a number of complex, large-scale projects. I’m confident in his abilities to deliver in the Northeast, where we have approximately $3.3 billion in projects underway through 2015 to increase take-away volumes and processing capacity in the Marcellus and Utica.
“Frank’s work developing customer relationships opened doors to this tremendous opportunity we have in the Northeast. We look forward to having his commercial expertise, as well as his experience and leadership in strategy development, applied across the entire enterprise,” Armstrong added. “This leadership realignment represents an opportunity to realize the full value of Jim’s and Frank’s diverse experiences and bring new perspectives to these roles to further enhance our operating and commercial capabilities and support our One Williams vision.”
Since joining Williams in 1988, Scheel has served in leadership roles that include operations, engineering and operational excellence; the company’s natural gas liquids business; business and strategic development with more than $6 billion in transactions and business integrations; and management of international and joint-venture operations. In Lithuania, Scheel helped Williams negotiate the purchase of a distressed company and led the operational aspects of modernizing a refinery and completing an oil export terminal. Scheel earned his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1986.
Billings’ current tenure at Williams began in 2010 as vice president of business development for the company’s gathering and processing business. Prior to rejoining Williams, Billings was president of the privately owned Cumberland Plateau Pipeline Co. From July 2008 to June 2009, he served as a senior vice president for Crosstex Energy Inc. and Crosstex Energy LP. Billings worked for Williams from 1988 to 2008 in a variety of management roles across both the gathering and processing and natural gas liquids businesses, including development of the Overland Pass Pipeline business.
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