Robert E. Murray, right, president, chairman and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., speaks with West Liberty University student McKenzie Peluchette on Tuesday.
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. — Local university students gained business tips from an Upper Ohio Valley businessman with a legacy in the coal industry Tuesday, during an annual educational seminar.
Robert E. Murray, president, chairman and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., shared personal wisdom from his 58-year career in the mining industry with various students from West Liberty University’s Gary E. West College of Business as part of the annual Executive Seminar Speaker Series.
Murray explained his childhood and humble beginnings in the Ohio Valley, including his roots in Bethesda, where he mowed 32 lawns in order to care for his father who had been paralyzed from the neck down following a coal mining accident and his mother who was battling cancer.
He outlined his ascent in the coal industry, including 31 years as president and CEO of North American Coal Corp. and his eventual firing. Murray expressed disdain for the Obama administration’s environmental policies, while expressing the importance of affordable, coal-fired energy.
Coal “is a local industry. It’s supported families in the Ohio Valley and tri-state area for generations. It’s vital to keeping low-cost, available, reliable electric power and that industry is being destroyed right here in our country,” Murray said. “You people are going to have to live through it. Reliable, low-cost electricity is a staple of life, and our federal government is destroying it.”
In his advice to students, Murray described a seven-point “decision tree” he uses to navigate his career and personal life. The points include God, family, lenders, customers, employees and the public – in that order of importance. He also discussed the importance of political involvement.
“I care about my employees deeply. I had 8,400 last May 1. Today I have 5,100, and I know those 3,300 that I had to lay off in less than a year, most of them by name. Thank you, Barack Obama and Democrats, and thank you natural gas,” Murray said. “That is the reason low-cost electricity is being destroyed in this country, by those two factors. When you get out of here and you’re trying to run a business, do not underestimate how helpful or destructive your federal government can be and become involved in the political process.”
Murray added he wanted to speak with students to give them a realistic view of career possibilities.
“If I can help tell the story as to how the world really is, I can help these young people and that’s why I’m here,” Murray said.
Associate professor of management Dave Wright coordinates the speaker series, which has been ongoing since 1986.
“We have business leaders to talk about their experiences, issues they face and conflicts they deal with to understand what it’s like to be a chief executive officer,” Wright said. “It’s necessary as part of their educational experience to get insight from people out there doing it. There’s only so much we can do as educators. … You have to hear from those who pound the pavement.”
McKenzie Peluchette, a senior management major at West Liberty, said the former Liberty Coal Co. closed in 1972, causing many of his family members, including his grandfather, Melvin Peluchette, to seek employment at Crescent Hill Coal Co. before helping to start a new company named after Liberty.
“All of my aunts and uncles were in the mines when they were kids working and eventually it fell thorough,” Peluchette said. “Now they own their own company, Liberty Distributors, which my pap, Melvin, helped start so I was excited to share the information with Murray.”
To read more from The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register, subscribe here.
