By Suzanne Herel

The PJM Nominating Committee is recommending Dean Oskvig, retired CEO of Black & Veatch, and Mark Takahashi, CFO of Ascendant Group, for election to the Board of Managers.

They would fill the spots left vacant by Richard Lahey and Jean Kinsey when they retire at this year’s annual meeting, to be held next month.

Oskvig spent his entire 40-year career with Black & Veatch, where he began as an engineer and went on to become project manager, partner-in-charge, COO and ultimately CEO for energy. Previously, he served in the U.S. Air Force.

Takahashi is an international finance executive with 30 years of experience in energy finance after starting out as an engineer. He has worked in the engineering, procurement and construction, and power and utility sectors.

The committee also is recommending that South Carolina technical engineer Terry Blackwell be re-elected to the 10-person board. He was chosen last year to serve out the remaining term of William Mayben, who retired after eight years. (See New PJM Board Member Elected, Re-election Eligibility Changed.)

This will be the first board appointment under new terms adopted last year: Members will be ineligible for re-election once they turn 75 or have served five terms.

That precludes Lahey from seeking another term; he has served on the board since its inception in 1997.

PJM does not disclose the ages of its board members, so it’s unclear whether Kinsey, who joined in 2003, could have sought another term.

The Nominating Committee consists of eight members: five PJM stakeholders and three board members. This year’s sector representatives were Marji Phillips, Other Suppliers; Joe Kerecman, Generation Owners; Lisa McAlister, Electric Distribution; Ruth Ann Price, End Use Customers; and John Horstmann, Transmission Owners.

The board members were Howard Schneider, who served as the nonvoting chair, Ake Almgren and Kinsey.