Bennett K. Hatfield

Bennett Kay Hatfield began his career with A.T. Massey and for the next 23 years, Hatfield served in various operations, and corporate management positions within Massey, culminating with his promotion to executive vice president, and chief operations officer for Massey Energy Company. In December 2001, Hatfield resigned from Massey Energy, and accepted a position of executive vice president at El Paso Corporations Coastal Coal subsidiary. While with El Paso, he was charged with strengthening operation performances, and preparing coal holdings for organized sales. In March of 2003, Hatfield accepted a position with Arch Coal as president of eastern operations, in which he was responsible for nearly 30 million annual tons of coal production located in mines throughout Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. In 2005, investor Wilbur Ross, Jr. offered Hatfield the position of president and chief executive officer of the newly formed International Coal Group. Compromised from the remains of two coal companies emerged from bankruptcy, Hatfield was tasked with putting together a strong management team, with a focus to take the company public. In six years, even in coal market declines, along with other challenging issues, Arch Coal purchased ICG for $3.4 billion. After a brief stint in retirement following the sale of ICG, Hatfield joined Patriot Coal Corporation as executive vice president and COO. Nine months after becoming part of Patriot, Hatfield was faced with navigating the company through Chapter 11 reorganization. Over the next two years, Hatfield managed to preserve not only the jobs of over 4,000 workers, but the medical benefits for 10,000 retirees as well, while eliminating roughly $1.7 billion in liabilities. Hatfield left Patriot in mid-2015. Before his passing, Hatfield had been the Principal of Coal Strategies LLC, and also served as an independent director on the Boards of Foresight Energy LP and Minerals Refining Company.