William McCartney, Jr., a 1995 graduate of West Virginia University, will deliver the 2013 Dow/Union Carbide Seminar Honoring Jean Cropley at his alma mater on Friday, May 3, at 9:30 a.m. The lecture, entitled, “Shale Gas: The Latest Industrial Revolution,” will be held at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy, Assembly Room 101 A/B. It is free and open to the public.

Breakthroughs in horizontal drilling have opened up possibilities for industrial revitalization and energy independence. Much like other technological advances, this drilling technology will provide the foundation for many new industrial centers to form, and provide opportunities to many generations of engineers to invent a path to energy independence.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, McCartney achieved great success in the energy trading sector. He began his career as a system planning engineering with CNG Transmission, and later began trading natural gas at CNG Energy Services. He went on to work for some of the leading companies in energy trading, managing significant natural gas asset portfolios. While at El Paso Merchant Energy, he managed one of the largest storage and transportation trading books, worth more than $1 billion.

McCartney recently retired from Vitrol Inc., where he led the acquisition of natural gas assets and negotiated its sale for more than $250 million. He also managed the fuel oil portfolio for North and South America, transporting and blending crude oil barrels around the globe. He is currently pursuing philanthropic interests in education, the arts and medicine. He is a member of the WVU Foundation Board of Directors; is on the Governing Board of Directors of the Houston Symphony; and he and his wife, Christie, served as co-presidents of the WVU Alumni Lone Star Chapter of Houston.

The seminar series honors Jean B. Cropley, who retired from Union Carbide’s Technical Center in South Charleston, W.Va., in 1993 as a Corporate Research Fellow. A specialist in real process chemical reaction engineering, Cropley is past chair of the Union Carbide Corporate Fellows Task Force on Education and its 300-member Education Volunteers Group of the Kanawha Valley.

-WVU-

mcd/04/29/13

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CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon
304-293-4086; mary.dillon@mail.wvu.edu