National Fuel Gas Company has announced the following promotions: Lee E. Hartz to assistant vice president of National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation (Supply); Kevin D. House to assistant vice president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation (the Utility); Jeffery J. Kittka to assistant vice president of National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation; and John J. Polka Jr. to assistant vice president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation.
Hartz was hired in 2004 as an attorney in Erie in the Utility’s Legal Department. In 2009, he became the assistant general manager of the Land Department. In 2010, Hartz was promoted to general manager with responsibility for both the Land Department, overseeing the management of the company-owned buildings and landowner and property rights matters, and the Risk Management Department (including claims, safety and Utility environmental compliance) of the regulated companies. He is also responsible for the company’s insurance coverage program.
House was hired in 1984 as a management trainee in Erie in the Utility’s Pennsylvania Operations Department. Following 14 years of working in field and customer service operations, House transferred to the Engineering Department. In 2002, he relocated to the company’s headquarters in Buffalo, becoming the department’s general manager in 2007. House holds responsibility for Engineering Services’ support of the Utility’s mainline replacement program and Geographic Information System, corporate asset records, and general engineering support for the regulated companies.
Kittka joined the company in 1984 as a management trainee in Oil City. He spent the first 12 years of his career at various Supply field locations and transferred into Supply’s Engineering Department in 1997 where he became general manager in 2007. After the Supply and the Utility engineering departments merged into one Engineering Services department, Kittka became responsible for the pipeline projects of Supply and Empire Pipeline, Inc., Midstream’s gathering system projects, pipeline environmental and clean air compliance, and the transmission integrity management program.
Hired as a management trainee in 1978, Polka soon joined the New York Operations Department of the Utility where he worked for four years prior to a transfer to the Engineering Department. From 1999 to 2001, he was one of the leaders on the multi-disciplinary team that successfully implemented the PeopleSoft Financial system. Polka was then assigned to the Gas Supply Administration Department where he became general manager in 2002. He is responsible for the Utility’s gas purchasing and pipeline capacity contracting functions. Polka also will be in charge of the Utility’s Energy Services Department.
