Former AEP Executive Bill Lhota, 77, Passes Away

Bill Lhota

William J. (Bill) Lhota, 77, passed away Aug. 10 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Lhota retired from AEP as executive vice president-energy delivery after a 37-year career at the company. At retirement, he was in charge of AEP’s power transmission and distribution systems in 11 states.

He began his career with AEP in 1965 when he joined Ohio Power Company as an associate engineer in transmission. He held various positions at Ohio Power, including transmission and distribution engineering manager and executive assistant to the president.

He was named senior vice president-operations in 1983 and president and chief operations officer for Columbus Southern Power Company from 1987-89. He also served as executive vice president-operations (1989-96), executive vice president-energy delivery and customer relations (1996-2000) and executive vice president-energy delivery (2000-2001). Lhota retired from the company Jan. 1, 2001.

During Lhota’s 37-year career, he had extensive experience in public policy and labor relations. Lhota had day-to-day responsibility for public policy in Washington and in Ohio for over four years and supervised both Washington and state public policy for over 18 years. Lhota worked with organized labor throughout his career and was instrumental in establishing cooperative relations between AEP and it’s labor unions.

Lhota most recently served as president and chief executive officer for the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) and was a director of Huntington Bancshares Inc. He also served as chairman of the Columbus Municipal Airport Authority, the National Society of Professional Engineers Board of Ethical Review, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from The Ohio State University 1964, and a master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 1978. He was a registered professional engineer in Ohio , Michigan and New York, and a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers and the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers.

He is survived by his wife, Susan, and daughter, Ann. A son preceded him in death.