Josef Ehrengruber

Josef Ehrengruber studied economics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where he received his master's degree in 1970. After some basic training with the Industrial Equipment Division of Voest Alpine, he was assigned to a subsidiary in New York, living in Manhattan for a period of six years. He assumed responsibility for procurement of industrial equipment and was working as project manager for various steel companies. Concerned about the continuing availability of raw materials after the 1974 coal boom, Ehrengruber began getting involved in the search and evaluation of United States coal properties in for potential acquisition by Voest Alpine and moved back to Austria in 1976. After the company acquired interest in Virginia Crews Coal Company in Iaeger, West Virginia he moved to the Mountain State and became president of Virginia Crews, which operated as a joint venture, with A.T. Massey as a partner. Under his stewardship, Virginia Crews grew from a small 250,000 ton per year producer to a well-recognized producer of premium quality coking coals, with overall production reaching 2.2 million tons per year. After the sale of Virginia Crews and Alpine Development Company to the American Metals and Coal International group in 1990, while maintaining responsibility for all southern West Virginia operations of AMCI through his office in Welch, West Virginia, he also took over the position of president of Tanoma Mining Company which operated a slope and shaft mine. Ehrengruber maintained overall responsibility for all AMCI West Virginia operations until the sale of the operations to the newly formed Alpha Natural Resources group in 2003 and remained in charge as Division Head of the renamed Alpha Welch Operations group until his retirement on Dec. 31, 2004.