A new executive director has been named to run the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association. Katie Laning Niebaum was recently named to the job of being in charge of the association which promotes renewable power, energy efficiency and advanced energy technology.
“It’s been a little bit like drinking from a fire hose,” the Texas native told Arkansas Business after succeeding Katie Laning Niebaum as chief of the Little Rock-based association.
“It has been fun but also crazy,” said Osborne, who led the Arkansas Society of Association Directors in Little Rock before joining the AAEA and its partner organization, the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation, when Niebaum left the workforce just before having twins.
Osborne started Aug. 3, but her appointment wasn’t announced for weeks. “It’s a unique time in Arkansas now for advanced energy, and I’m trying to wrap my arms around it as quickly as I can.”
Like Niebaum, Osborne will lead both the AAEA and AAEF, a mission that’s thrown her into a world of terms like net metering, distributed generation and SEPO-B (a proposed Entergy Arkansas solar energy purchase offer). “It’s a new vocabulary to learn, but I’m excited.”
Before her two years at ASAE, she worked on both international and domestic policy issues for Occidental Petroleum of Houston, the company founded by Armand Hammer.
Osborne praised AAEA and AAEF for advocacy in advanced energy industry and government policy, but said there remains much to do to keep a growing new industry thriving in Arkansas, including “strong policies that encourage job growth in all our advanced energy sectors.” The goal, she said, is to protect established helpful policies and “expand opportunities for all advanced energy companies throughout the state.”
Source: Arkansas Business
