Paul W. Thompson

Biography

Paul W. Thompson was named to his current position in January 2017. As President and COO he is responsible for all matters of the company. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for all operations areas including generation, energy supply and analysis, electric distribution and transmission, gas distribution and storage, and customer service. Thompson has more than 25 years of experience in the electric and natural gas utility industry. Prior to coming to LG&E and KU, he worked 10 years in the oil and gas industry. Thompson started his career as manager of Financial Planning at Northwest Industries in Chicago. Prior to joining the company in 1991, he worked for Lone Star Technologies, a Northwest Industries subsidiary in Tulsa and Dallas; and for Koch Industries Inc. in Tulsa and Boston. Thompson joined LG&E in 1991 as director of Business Development and subsequently held several upper-management positions before being promoted to senior vice president of Energy Services in 1999. Thompson has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a master's degree in business administration in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago. He also completed the Executive Program on Leading Corporate Transformation at the E.ON Academy Harvard University. Thompson is currently a board member of Electric Energy Inc. and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, and is on the advisory board for the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research. He was previously a board member and chairman of the board of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance. In civic roles, Thompson is a past chair of the Louisville Downtown Development Corporation and currently serves as a board and executive committee member. He is a board and executive committee member for Greater Louisville Inc. and for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. He is a past chairman of the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation Board and currently serves as the Advocacy Committee chair. He is a board member of Trees Louisville and Fund for the Arts, and has been named the 2017 Fund for the Arts Campaign Chair. Thompson also is a graduate of Leadership Louisville.

Research Interest

operations ,generation, energy supply and analysis, electric distribution and transmission, gas distribution and storage, and customer service