PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 8, 2024--
Centuri Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CTRI) (“Centuri” or the “Company”), a leading, pure-play North American utility infrastructure services company, today highlights recent appointments for two long-time Centuri employees to newly-formed strategic roles. Dylan Hradek now serves as President, US Gas and Jim Connell assumed the role of Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer. The appointments and newly-formed leadership positions, which took effect at the end of the second quarter, further optimize the Company’s organizational structure to meet near and long-term business objectives, including charting a deliberate path to organically grow the business and streamlining operations to ensure excellence in customer service delivery.
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Dylan leads Centuri’s US Gas segment with accountability for customer operations while pursuing strategic growth opportunities across service territories and into new markets. This move aligns all US Gas operations under a further streamlined leadership structure to enable seamless, coordinated execution for existing and prospective customers. Jim is responsible for enterprise-wide commercial efforts, including the development of strategic action plans that enable growth in key geographic markets and emerging segments across electric, gas and adjacent sectors.
“Centuri is poised to play an even greater role in helping our customers meet the ever-increasing demands placed on our nation’s aging gas and electric infrastructure, supporting an increasing load demand driven by AI and new technologies, and accelerating the alternative energy transition,” said Paul Caudill, Centuri Interim President & CEO. “The appointments of Dylan and Jim come at a pivotal time as we look to expand on these opportunities with current and new customers. Both leaders bring extensive industry and customer experience that will help us continue our high standard of operational excellence and achieve our growth objectives.”
Dylan’s utility experience spans 35 years. He joined Centuri in 1999 as a foreman for NPL and prior to this appointment, was President, US Gas–Great Lakes where he successfully led NPL’s Midwest operations. Throughout Jim’s nearly 20 years with the Company, he has held several roles in leadership with a focus on customers, operations support services, and business strategy. Jim joined Centuri in 2006, most recently serving as President of Centuri Gas Group.
“These leadership moves further optimize our people and our resources by maintaining a flat organizational structure and reducing further layers in our gas operations while aiding in the delivery of enhanced value for our customers, communities, and numerous stakeholders, including our shareholders,” said Caudill.
Read Dylan Hradek and Jim Connell complete bios here.
About Centuri
Centuri Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CTRI) is a strategic utility infrastructure services company that partners with regulated utilities to build and maintain the energy network that powers millions of homes and businesses across the United States and Canada. For more information about Centuri, visit www.Centuri.com
Dylan Hradek, President, US Gas, Centuri (Photo: Business Wire)
Jim Connell, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer, Centuri (Photo: Business Wire)
SEOUL. South Korea (AP) — The United States has blocked imports of sea salt products from a major South Korean salt farm accused of using slave labor, becoming the first trade partner to take punitive action against a decadeslong problem on salt farms in remote islands off South Korea’s southwest coast.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order against the Taepyung salt farm, saying information “reasonably indicates” the use of forced labor at the company in the island county of Sinan, where most of South Korea’s sea salt products are made.
Under the order issued last Wednesday, Customs personnel at all U.S. ports of entry are required to hold sea salt products sourced from the farm.
Taepyung is the largest salt farm in Sinan, reportedly producing about 16,000 tons of salt annually, which accounts for approximately 6% of the country’s total output, and is a major supplier to South Korean food companies. The farm, located on Jeungdo island in Sinan and leasing most of its salt fields to tenants, has been repeatedly accused of using forced labor, including in 2014 and 2021.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said relevant government agencies, including the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, have been taking steps to address labor practices at Taepyung since 2021, and it assesses that none of the salt produced there now is sourced from forced labor. The ministry said it plans to “actively engage” in discussions with the U.S. officials over the matter. The fisheries ministry didn’t immediately comment on the U.S. move.
The widespread slavery at Sinan’s salt farms was exposed in 2014, when dozens of slavery victims — most of them with disabilities — were rescued from the islands following an investigation by mainland police. Some of their stories were documented by The Associated Press, which highlighted how slavery persisted despite the exposure.
U.S. Customs said it identified several signs of forced labor during its investigation of Taepyung, including “abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, retention of identity documents, abusive living and working conditions, intimidation and threats, physical violence, debt bondage, withholding of wages, and excessive overtime.”
Lawyer Choi Jung Kyu, part of a group of attorneys and activists who petitioned U.S. Customs to take action against Taepyung and other South Korean salt farms in 2022, expressed hope that the U.S. ban would increase pressure on South Korea to take more effective steps to eliminate the slavery.
“Since the exposure of the problem in 2014, the courts have recognized the legal responsibility of the national government and local governments, but forced labor among salt farm workers has not been eradicated,” Choi said. “Our hope is that the export ban would force companies to strengthen due diligence over supply chains and lead to the elimination of human rights violations.”
Most of the salt farm slaves rescued in 2014 had been lured to the islands to work by brokers hired by salt farm owners, who would beat them into long hours of hard labor and confine them at their houses for years while providing little or no pay.
The slavery was revealed in early 2014 when two police officers from the capital, Seoul, disguised themselves as tourists to clandestinely rescue a victim who had been reported by his family as missing. One of the Seoul police officers told AP they went undercover because of concerns about collaboration between the island’s police and salt farm owners. Dozens of farm owners and job brokers were indicted, but no police or officials were punished despite allegations some knew about the slavery.
In 2019, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that ordered the government to compensate three men who had been enslaved on Sinan’s salt farms, acknowledging that local officials and police failed to properly monitor their living and working conditions.
The salt farm slavery issue resurfaced in 2021 when around a dozen workers at Taepyung were discovered to have endured various labor abuses, including forced labor and wage theft.
FILE - A salt farm owner walks around his salt farm on Sinui Island, South Korea, Feb. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
