D. Ralph Bowling Vice President, Power Production

Ralph Bowling was named to his current position in 2008. He has more than 28 years of experience in the electric utility industry.

Bowling began his career as a power plant construction journeyman at Louisville Gas and Electric Company in 1976. He became central maintenance manager in 1989 and subsequently held the manager of maintenance services position from 1992 to 1998. Bowling then assumed the plant general manager position at Western Kentucky Energy and held that position from 1998 until 2002. He was a member of the transition team involved in all aspects of initial start-up of Western Kentucky Energy Co., including development of initial operation and maintenance (O&M) expense and capital budgets, payroll and accounting system changeover, labor negotiations and contract closing agreements. He served as a member of the merger transition team responsible for combining operations of Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric Company generation facilities. Bowling accepted the position of general manager of Powergen's Black Fossil Group in the United Kingdom in 2002 where he served until 2003 when he returned to the United States and Western Kentucky Energy to assume his current role. Bowling has extensive labor relations experience in a union environment. He represented management in three collective bargaining agreement negotiations at Western Kentucky Energy and served as chief spokesperson for the Company in the most recent negotiations.

Bowling has attended the Finance for Non-Finance Managers Course at E.ON Academy Harvard University. He has also attended a variety of management courses, including the Advanced Management College at Stanford, Penn State University's Developing Managerial Effectiveness and the Disney Institute's Leadership Excellence program. He attended the Business School at Bellarmine College in Louisville, as well as Jefferson Community College where he completed two years in their business program.