Bill Spence announced as Penn State Lehigh Valley 2019 commencement speaker

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Bill Spence, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PPL Corporation, will be the featured speaker at Penn State Lehigh Valley’s 2019 commencement ceremony to be held May 4 at 10:30 a.m. at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. PPL Corporation is one of the largest investor-owned utility companies in the U.S.

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of PPL Corporation, Bill Spence, will serve as PSU-LV's 2019 commencement featured speaker. 

Credit: PPL Corp.

Expand

In 2018, Spence and his wife, Denise, endowed a Penn State Lehigh Valley Collective Impact Scholarship, an initiative to allow local talent to thrive in the Lehigh Valley and support the growing needs of the region’s workforce.

Spence, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, graduated from Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences with a bachelor of science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Bentley College. Spence also is a graduate of the Executive Development Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the Nuclear Technology Program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The education I received at Penn State truly shaped my life,” said Spence. “I am honored to share my experiences and motivate a new class of local talent that will undoubtedly help address the complex demands of our changing world.”

With more than three decades of experience in the utility industry, Spence oversees PPL’s regulated utilities in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Spence joined PPL in 2006 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was named president and CEO in 2011 and chairman in 2012. Previously, he had 19 years of service with Pepco Holdings, Inc., where he held several senior management positions.

Spence serves on the board of the Electric Power Research Institute, on the executive committee of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and as co-chairman of EEI’s CEO Policy Committee on Reliability, Security and Business Continuity. He is a member of EEI’s Finance and Environment and Climate CEO Policy Committees. He also is a member of EEI’s Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council.

Spence serves on the board of directors of Williams Companies, Inc., Lehigh Valley Health Network and the Allentown Symphony Association. He also serves on multiple boards and executive committees for Lehigh Valley organizations and for the United States Council for International Business.