WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa, has announced his upcoming retirement May 1, 2016 as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WEC Energy Group, one of the nation's premier energy companies, serving 4.4. million electric and natural gas customers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, WEC Energy Group, is the parent corporation of Peoples Gas, the sole supplier of natural gas to the residents of the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, the City Council has been informed of this event by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee (UWM) with a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa began his career at Georgia Power Company and worked in several leadership roles at the Southern Company; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa joined Wisconsin Energy Corporation in 2003 as its president and joined the board of directors later that year; and
WHEREAS, in 2012 Electric Light & Power magazine named Klappa CEO of the Year, and Corporate Responsibility magazine named him Responsible CEO of the Year for his commitment to transparency, accountability and customer satisfaction, and in 2013 he was named 2013 Wisconsin Business Leader of the Year by the Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa has been named to Institutional Investor magazine's All-American Executive Team for the sixth consecutive year, and he was ranked as the best CEO of a purely regulated utility; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa serves on several for-profit board of directors and has volunteered his time on several nonprofit board of directors including the United Way and the United Performing Arts Fund, to name a few; and
WHEREAS, Gale E. Klappa will retire as CEO of WEC Energy Group, Inc., and assume the role of nonexecutive chairman of WEC Energy Group; and
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this thirteenth day of April, 2016, do hereby ...
Click here for full text