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Longtime Williams director and former Chairman of the Board Kathleen Cooper was honored at this week’s annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday.
Cooper, a Director since 2006, is one of a select few women to serve as an S&P 500 company Chairman of the Board – an even rarer feat in the energy sector.
“Kathy’s leadership coming out of what was a difficult period of transition both for Williams and our Board, was instrumental in producing the rejuvenated company and outstanding Board that we have today,” said Williams President & CEO Alan Armstrong. “During her 14 years as a Williams director, Kathy’s insights and judgment helped chart Williams’ course through a wide range of corporate activities which were often positive, but always challenging.”
During the business portion of the annual meeting, which was held virtually this year as a health precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several proxy statement proposals were presented by current Chairman of the Board Stephen Bergstrom.
The proposals included the election of the full slate of current Directors, including the Chairman, with the exception of Cooper who has reached the Board’s mandatory retirement age. In addition, company stockholders approved, on an advisory basis, the company’s executive compensation. Stockholder votes will be tallied and made available to the public via an 8-K SEC filing with four business days.
Armstrong concluded the Annual Meeting with remarks on how Williams is playing a critical role in the clean energy economy, especially during uncertain times.
“Despite all the volatility in the financial market and commodity prices we’ve seen over the past month and a half, I feel that we, as a company, have certainly had an opportunity to distinguish ourselves through this market cycle with our natural-gas focused strategy,” said Armstrong. “Our assets and the underlying strength of natural gas as a clean, reliable and affordable energy source has been reflected in our stock performance in recent weeks compared to our peers.”
Williams handles approximately 30 percent of the nation’s natural gas with more than 30,000 miles of pipelines that deliver the natural gas that is used every day in the U.S. to reliably and affordably heat our homes, cook our food and generate our electricity.