By Tom Kleckner

The Gulf Coast Power Association will honor former Executive Director Tom Foreman with its 2019 Pat Wood Power Star Award during its spring conference in Houston next month. The award is presented in recognition of the recipient’s “significant contributions towards the advancement of [Texas’] competitive energy markets.” Foreman retired as GCPA’s executive director last year, capping a 41-year career in the utility industry. (See GCPA’s Foreman to Retire as Executive Director.)

“Throughout his long career in the Texas power market, Tom Foreman has been a thoughtful, inclusive, creative and loyal friend to so many of us,” said the award’s namesake, former FERC Chairman Pat Wood III. “Under his leadership, the GCPA has grown to its largest and most diverse membership in history. Tom Foreman is an exemplary Power Star.”

Foreman served as the organization’s third executive director from 2013-2018. During his tenure, GCPA launched its emPOWERing Women program and expanded the organization’s geographic reach with conferences for electric markets in states and countries bordering Texas that are evolving competitively. The association will hold its fourth Mexico Electric Power Market Conference on June 6 in Mexico City. GCPA also donated approximately $500,000 to universities during Foreman’s tenure.

“Tom has done an outstanding job by expanding into other regions, establishing the emPOWERing Women program and growing the scholarship program,” said Kim Casey, who succeeded Foreman as executive director.

Foreman began his career at Gulf States Utilities in Beaumont, Texas. He consulted in Austin before spending 23 years with the Lower Colorado River Authority, followed by his six-year stint with GCPA. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Wood, who also chaired Texas’ Public Utility Commission under Gov. George W. Bush, will be on hand to help present the award during GCPA’s 33rd annual Spring Conference April 16-17.