Williams Appoints Charles “Casey” Cogut and Michael Creel as Independent Board Members

williams4

The Williams Companies, Inc. announced Tuesday that Charles “Casey” Cogut and Michael A. Creel have been appointed to the Board of Directors effective immediately, according to a company press release.

The two new directors will stand for election at Williams’ 2017 Annual Meeting of Stockholders scheduled for May 18, 2017.

Cogut and Creel were selected through the Board’s previously announced candidate search process. The Williams Board now has 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent and seven of whom were appointed in 2016.

“Casey and Mike bring diverse expertise to our board,” said Alan Armstrong, Williams’ president and chief executive officer. “Casey is an incredibly talented adviser to boards of directors around the world, and his experience will be invaluable to Williams as we move forward. Mike has been a leader in the natural gas industry as the former CEO of Enterprise Products for many years, and Williams will benefit from his long track-record of financial discipline and shareholder value creation. I look forward to welcoming Casey and Mike as we continue to execute our strategy of capturing natural gas demand growth and driving value for our stockholders.”

Cogut is currently senior merger and acquisitions counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he has practiced law for more than 40 years. Over the course of his career, Cogut has specialized in domestic, international and cross-border mergers and acquisitions; corporate governance matters; the representation of special committees of boards of directors; and buyouts and other transactions involving private equity firms. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Cogut is a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a private, not-for-profit research and educational institution at the forefront of molecular biology and genetics. He graduated summa cum laude from Lehigh University and received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Creel is a highly-skilled and extremely knowledgeable industry leader. Creel served as chief executive officer and director of the general partner of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. until his retirement in 2015. He served in positions with increasing responsibility with the company since 1999. He was also group vice chairman at EPCO, Inc., and executive vice president and chief financial officer at Duncan Energy Partners L.P., a company engaged in natural gas liquids transportation, fractionation, marketing and storage, and petrochemical product transportation, gathering and marketing. Creel was also president and chief executive officer at the general partner of Enterprise GP Holdings L.P. and held a number of executive management positions with Shell affiliate Tejas Energy and NorAm Energy Corp. Creel was appointed to the board of Suncor Energy effective January 1, 2017. He is a graduate of McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting.