Cruz named AGDC board chairman

PALMER — Palmer’s Dave Cruz has been elected as chairman of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. board of directors, the organization announced Friday.

Cruz, president of Cruz Companies, had been serving dual roles as acting board chairman and president following the Nov. 20 resignation of Dan Fauske, according to an AGDC press release. Cruz was reappointed to the board by Gov. Bill Walker in September.

Leslie “Fritz” Krusen was appointed to serve as interim president, according to the release. Krusen joined AGDC in October 2014 as vice president of Alaska LNG. In that role, he has had primary technical and project management responsibility over AGDC's participation in the Alaska LNG export project.

In other AGDC board action, Hugh Short of Girdwood was elected vice-chairman and Eagle River’s Joey Merrick secretary-treasurer, according to the release.

The Alaska Gasline Development Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil voted earlier this month to support 2016 project funding to continue preliminary engineering and optimization efforts on the estimated $45-$65 billion Alaska LNG Project.