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| LOUIS T. BENEZET AWARD RECIPIENT
1997 |
William E. James '68
 William
"Wilber" James is Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Power
LLC in Boston, Massachusetts, a company that has recently been acquired
by the Energy Group of London. Citizens Power is the successor company
to Citizens Power & Light, the nation's first electric power marketing
company, which he founded in 1988. Today it leads the effort toward nationwide
utility deregulation. In 1979, Wilber co-founded Citizens Energy with
Joseph P. Kennedy II, creating a non-profit company which bought crude
oil from producing nations, refined it, and distributed heating oil to
low income people.
Citizens Energy quickly grew in scope and size. Its assistance programs
expanded from heating and oil to natural gas, electric power, and pharmaceuticals
throughout the United States, as well as to educational, agricultural,
and energy projects in Africa and Latin America. These activities were
funded by for-profit subsidiaries which Wilber formed and managed as Chairman
and CEO of Citizens Corporation, the for-profit holding company of Citizens
Energy. Since its founding and as the businesses of its subsidiaries developed
in the diverse areas of worldwide crude oil and refined products trading,
U.S. natural gas trading, international oil exploration, and pharmaceutical
marketing, Citizens Energy has channeled approximately 40 million dollars
to assistance programs in the U.S. and overseas.
After graduating from Colorado College, Wilber served for three years
as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, where he raised the funds and built
the Tharaka Secondary School, the first agricultural secondary school
in East Africa. From 1973 to 1975, as Deputy Director of the program in
Seattle, which became a model VISTA program.
Wilber's successes and achievements in the public sector and corporate
milieu have improved the lives of people on a global scale, and Colorado
College is honored to present him with a Benezet Award.
Alumni Awards Main Page
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