Tom Farrell, who led Dominion Energy for more than a years as well as was an effective pressure in Virginia organization and also politics, died Friday, someday after stepping down from his message as the company’s executive chairman. He was 66.
A press release from the utility said Farrell, who acted as the firm’s chairman, president and also chief executive officer from 2007 to 2020, had actually been battling cancer, which took a sudden kip down current weeks.
” Tom was a peerless mentor and also exceptional leader that sought to find innovative options to obstacles at Dominion Energy, in the energy sector and in the neighborhood he called house,” claimed Robert M. Blue, who succeeded Farrell as board chairman. “In his tenure at the company, Tom looked after a period of prosperity and development, as well as a long-lasting makeover that will have a long lasting impact on clean power advancement as well as on the health and wellness of the environment.”
Farrell invested greater than 15 years practicing regulation prior to signing up with Dominion Energy as general advise in 1995. Over the next 9 years, he served in several elderly management positions at the business. Farrell was called president as well as principal operating officer in 2004, as well as head of state as well as ceo in 2006. He was elected chairman in 2007, a blog post he held up until Thursday.
The business stated in its press release that Farrell assisted lead the energy’s acquisition of Consolidated Natural Gas in 2000. Farrell over the last few years additionally concentrated on building solar as well as wind energy centers as well as pursuing emissions with a commitment to net zero exhausts.
Preeminence offers 7 million customers in 16 states and is a Fortune 500 company based in Richmond Virginia.
In 2014, the business partnered with Duke Energy to introduce the Atlantic Coast Pipeline job, a 600-mile (965-kilometer) natural gas pipe made to go across West Virginia and also Virginia into North Carolina The huge infrastructure job attracted intense resistance from many landowners, lobbyists and also environmental advocates, that said it would damage pristine landscapes and also damage wildlife.
Ascendancy canceled the $8 billion task last July, as legal fights had actually placed, construction fell back timetable as well as the expense had actually ballooned. Challengers questioned whether there was sufficient need for the gas it would lug as well as stated it would additionally urge the use of a nonrenewable fuel source at once when climate change makes a shift to renewable resource important.
Gov. Ralph Northam claimed Farrell established the standard for magnate serving the neighborhood.
” He was devoted to his faith and also household above all, and also his peaceful, tranquil work made Virginia much better. My ideas are with Anne, Peter, Stuart, as well as all that enjoyed him,” Northam claimed.
Sen. Tim Kaine said that Farrell “had a major impact on Richmond, our Commonwealth as well as his precious UVA,” a referral to Farrell’s alma mater, the University of Virginia, from which he got his bachelor’s as well as regulation degrees.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney claimed Farrell’s management in the city’s service and also kind circles should have regard.
” It’s tough to consider an individual that has had a greater impact on the growth and also success of our city in the 21st century greater than Tom Farrell,” Stoney stated.
Farrell had actually worked as the chairman of Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA.
The Dominion press release stated he was chairman of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s board of trustees and was appointed to the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia. He additionally acted as a participant of the board of trustees of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
” We are heartbroken,” stated Richard Cullen, previous chairman of the law firm McGuireWoods as well as Farrell’s brother-in-law. “This is an extraordinary loss of a remarkable man.”