Joe Drennan

Joseph Albert Drennan was President and Chief Executive Officer of West Kootenay Power from 1980 to 1993.
During this period Mr. Drennan successfully guided West Kootenay Power through two significant business transformations. The first occurred when Cominco set West Kootenay at arms length from its mining operations. That meant West Kootenay had to get into the money markets, purchase dams and networks from Cominco, find a new head quarters, and build from scratch many of the basic support services required to run a company.

Mr. Drennan orchestrated the company's development in Trail. Then in 1986, before the dust had settled from the first major change, Cominco chose to divest itself of non-core assets like West Kootenay Power.

A year later UtiliCorp United acquired WKP. It was a turning point for both companies, the first international acquisition for UtiliCorp, which today serves 4 million customers in five different countries.

From that point forward, Mr. Drennan and UtiliCorp redoubled their commitment to Greater Trail, a commitment that resulted in the construction of a $4.5 million head office in 1993.

Things continue to evolve and grow for UtiliCorp in Canada. The ebb and flow of the global market place that Joe Drennan foresaw and embraced every day.

Few Trailites would know that he was a past chairman of the Canadian Electric Association, whose members represent hundreds of billions dollars in utility investments and electric sales across our country. Or that he was a well-respected director of the Western Electric Power Institute, which dealt with bilateral industry interests in both Canada and the United States.

To everyone in Trail he was "Joe", a likeable unassuming gentleman who was as comfortable in the international arena as he was in the Cominco Arena.

Joe Drennan passed away on December 31, 1993.