Columbia Gas Powering Up to Shed Bankruptcy : Leadership: Rick Richard’s fresh, innovative style is expected to bolster his company and the industry as a whole.

When he was 29, Rick Richard was appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They called him the “boy commissioner.”

Now, the would-be journalist and former tax lawyer, whose full name is Oliver G. Richard III, is all grown up and the chief executive officer of Columbia Gas System Inc., one of the nation’s largest natural-gas distributors and a company that’s been in bankruptcy reorganization for four years.

The 42-year-old Louisiana native is fresh, innovative and down-to-earth, industry observers say. They also say Columbia Gas was shrewd to pick him.

Richard is expected to not only breathe new life into Columbia Gas, but also the natural-gas industry in general.

“The utility industry has been fraught with stuffed shirts and close-minded individuals,” said Ronald Barone, associate director of Standard & Poor’s.

“He’s not one of these stuffed shirt highbrows. He’s a regular roll up your sleeves and chat,” Barone said. “They are coming out of bankruptcy with a new face.”

Columbia’s board of directors chose Richard on April 28 to replace John H. Croom, who retired once it appeared that Columbia Gas and its main pipeline subsidiary (Charleston, W.Va.-based Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.) would make it out of bankruptcy.

The companies filed for protection from their creditors under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws July 31, 1991, citing financial troubles caused by long-term contracts with gas producers that forced Columbia and its subsidiary to pay above-market prices for gas. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge allowed the companies to break the contracts in August, 1991.

Columbia and the subsidiary filed reorganization plans, blueprints for the repayment of $7.5 billion in debt, in April.

“The fact that they’re coming out of bankruptcy is obviously important,” said Stuart J. Wagner, natural-gas analyst for Petrie Parkman & Co. in Denver. “But I think they’ve really picked a very strong leader to lead them. I think this guy is a forward-looking kind of guy to take the company into the next century.”

Richard comes to Columbia Gas after serving as president and CEO of Northern Natural Gas Co. of Omaha, Neb., a pipeline subsidiary of Enron Corp. of Houston and most recently as chairman, CEO and president of New Jersey Resources Corp. in Wall, N.J.

“To have someone who’s been out there and seen it all is definitely a positive. You know what way the industry’s going,” Barone said. “Someone who was at the [regulatory commission], I think, will be able to steer the company in that direction.”

While Richard gets high marks for his experience and ability to infuse new life into companies, it remains to be seen whether he can turn around Columbia Gas.

The company hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by Dec. 29. Whenever it occurs, Standard & Poor’s preliminary rating will likely be a Triple B-, the lowest rating in the investment-grade scale.

Richard, who took over at the annual shareholders’ meeting, knows the company still has obstacles to overcome. But he thinks that despite the bankruptcy, Columbia Gas is well-positioned to move into high-tech areas once its legal problems are behind it.

He envisions residential customers shopping from their personal computers on the open market for natural gas for home heating, just like they do for banking.

“We think that in order to be a leader of the future, we have to be at the crest of the information age--and that’s interactivity,” Richard said. “So one of the major thrusts that we’re looking at, is how do you work towards giving customers more choices, because by doing so, you’re closer to them than you ever have been before.

“I think we would be a major player because what will happen under the bankruptcy. The plan that’s been filed will clear all of our past problems so that we can stake out . . . what customers want down the road.”