NIPSCO President Mark Maassel will be stepping down sometime soon, as part of a reorganization effort intended to centralize profit and loss accountability for the Indiana business operations of NiSource Inc.

Colleen Reilly, spokesperson for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, told the Chesterton Tribune today that Maassel’s transition is “still under discussion” and that the effective date of his resignation has not been determined yet.

As president of NIPSCO Massell has had responsibility for rates and regulatory issues, economic development, and community outreach, Reilly said.

On Dec. 3 NiSource, NIPSCO’s parent company, announced the appointment of Eileen O’Neill Odum to the new role of executive vice-president and group CEO for NiSource’s Indiana companies.

As part of that announcement, NiSource said that the leaders of all operations and functions which support its Indiana gas and electrical businesses—including Maassel—would have reporting relationships to Odum. “Eileen will provide a new central point of senior management accountability and advocacy for our electric generation, transmission, and distribution operations and our Indiana natural gas distribution businesses,” NiSource President and CEO Robert Skaggs Jr. said at the time. “Overall, responsibility for all aspects of those buusinesses will now reside with her—from service and reliability performance, to regulatory and commercial strategies, to ultimate accountability for the financial performance of this important business segment.”

Odum will report to Skaggs and serve as a member of NiSource’s executive management council. Sometime in the first quarter of 2008 NiSource expects to establish a second senior executive position with overall profit and loss responsibility for its gas distribution segment, which will include the company’s local natural gas distribution companies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and New England.

“Delivering on NiSource’s four-part business plan demands keen leadership focus and skillful execution of coordinated regulatory, commercial, and operations strategies,” Skaggs also said on Dec. 3. The “leadership model best positions NiSource to execute on our plan.”

Maassel has been an employee of NIPSCO for 30 years and has served as president since 2003. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Indiana Forum and in 2006 chaired that board.

Posted 12/12/2007