As part of a continuing initiative to strengthen its competitive energy business, PPL Corporation’s (NYSE: PPL) trading and marketing subsidiary announced Thursday (5/22) that it has named an industry veteran as its senior vice president for trading.
Robert D. Gabbard, who has served as senior vice president of merchant trading operations of Delaware-based Conectiv Energy since 2005, will have responsibility for PPL EnergyPlus’ energy trading operation.
As senior vice president of PPL EnergyPlus, he will report to Joe Hopf, president of PPL EnergyPlus, along with Gene Alessandrini, senior vice president for marketing.
“We are very pleased to add someone with Rob’s depth of both management and market experience to the PPL EnergyPlus team,” said William H. Spence, PPL’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Joe Hopf has done an outstanding job in growing the capability of our energy trading and marketing operation, a group that added $150 million to PPL Corporation’s gross margins in 2007. In Rob and Gene, we will have two of the best executives in this industry growing value for our shareowners in the trading and marketing portions of our business.”
Gabbard, who will join PPL on June 5, will have responsibility for PPL’s two trading floors, one in Allentown, Pa., and the other in Butte, Mt. He also will be responsible for acquiring fossil fuel supplies for PPL’s power plants.
A native of Danville, Kentucky, Gabbard has more than two decades of trading experience. He began his career as director of marketing and general counsel at Southern Gas Company in Versailles, Kentucky. He advanced to vice president of trading and marketing at Southern Gas before joining CMS Energy in 1990 as director of marketing and energy trading.
After seven years at CMS Energy, during which time he advanced to vice president of energy marketing, Gabbard moved to Conectiv Energy as vice president and general manager of power trading in 1998 and was promoted to his current position seven years later.
Gabbard holds a bachelor of arts degree from Stetson University and a law degree from the University of Dayton School of Law.
Since joining PPL in 2006, Alessandrini has been responsible for PPL’s mid- and long-term energy supply deals in key U.S. markets and for the company’s developing retail electricity sales business.
Before coming to PPL, Alessandrini was manager of PJM Mid-Markets for the Exelon Power Team. Previously, he held management roles in the energy marketing operation of Conectiv Energy Supply. Before that, he worked as line crew foreman, customer engineer, marketing engineer and substation engineer at Delmarva Power and Conectiv.
Alessandrini holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Delaware and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University.
PPL Corporation, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.