APPA Statesmanship Award Given to William Gallagher

APPA's 2010 Alan H. Richardson Statesmanship Award was given to William J. Gallagher, the retired general manager of the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority. The award recognizes public power leaders who work successfully and tirelessly on APPA's behalf forging consensus on national issues that achieve public power's goals.

Gallagher began his public power career in 1963 and worked continuously in the field for 43 years before retiring in 2006. After becoming general manager of Vermont Public Power Supply Authority in 1990, Gallagher became very active in APPA while serving on the Legislative and Resolutions Committee, the Membership Committee, numerous special committees on retail wheeling and restructuring and APPA's board of directors.

Trained as an accountant, he graduated from Merrimac College in North Andover, Mass. in 1963 and immediately went to work for the U.S. Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C. He later worked as a field representative for REA in Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, returning in 1966 to New England. In 1969 he joined Vermont Electric Cooperative, where he worked as the chief financial officer and later as general manager. In 1989, Vermont Public Power Supply Authority hired him as a consultant to help resolve problems it was facing. In January 1990 he joined VPPSA as general manager.

Since his retirement as general manager of VPPSA, Gallagher has continued to serve as chair of APPA's CEO Task Force on Climate Change. He also represents public power on the North American Electric Reliability Corp.'s Member Representatives Committee and the North American Energy Standards Board's Executive Committee. He continues to do consulting work for Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, the Transmission Access Policy Study Group and others.