Piedmont Natural Gas Senior Vice President and Chief Utility Operations Officer Michael Yount to Retire in Early 2012

Commitment to safety, reliability, operational efficiency and continuous process improvement highlight executive's tenure at Piedmont; company begins search process for successor

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Piedmont Natural Gas

Sep 01, 2011, 09:28 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today announced that Senior Vice President and Chief Utility Operations Officer, Michael H. Yount, plans to retire from the Company in early 2012. Mr. Yount's areas of responsibility include Piedmont's transmission, distribution and utility operations, engineering functions, and pipeline integrity and compliance programs. He joined Piedmont in 2006 after 10 years with the Senn-Delaney Leadership Consulting Group and 15 years with Williams/Transco (formerly Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation). During his tenure with Piedmont, Mr. Yount helped champion numerous initiatives designed to improve the company's business processes, increase operational efficiencies and build a culture of healthy, high performance and accountability among Piedmont's 1,800 employees.

Mr. Yount, who will turn 56 later this month, talked about his time at the Company, "Piedmont has been a very special place for me to work. I feel truly honored to have had the opportunity to work with teammates at all levels of this organization whom I consider to be among the finest in the natural gas industry. I will always value and appreciate my experiences here and the extraordinary relationships that I have with my teammates at the Company. I have worked hard to make a difference for my teammates and the Company's customers and shareholders. While this chapter in my life is coming to a close, I am excited about the opportunities that retirement offers me in the way of pursuing some lifelong personal and family interests and passions."

Commenting on Mr. Yount's pending retirement, Piedmont Natural Gas Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas E. Skains, said, "Michael has had a significant positive influence on Piedmont since joining us a little over five years ago. His leadership skills and innate ability to immediately connect with people have been instrumental in Piedmont's efforts to continuously improve our business processes and corporate culture for the benefit of our employees, customers and shareholders. Michael is a good friend and has been a trusted advisor to me and our entire executive management team. We will miss him but we also wish him the very best as he enters a new chapter in his life."

While a successor has not yet been named for Mr. Yount at Piedmont, the Company has initiated a search process to review internal and external candidates for the position. Mr. Yount will be assisting the Company in the search process and will also help with the transition effort once a successor has been named.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 52,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com.

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