Power Shift at We Energies, Klappa Stepping Down
Gale Klappa will leave WEC Energy Group as longest serving chief executive in company history.
Judith and Gale Klappa in 2016. Photo courtesy of UWM.
After more than two decades guiding one of Wisconsin’s most powerful corporations, Gale Klappa will retire from the board of directors of WEC Energy Group.
The company announced Thursday that Klappa, 75, will not stand for reelection, citing board governance guidelines. Following a May board meeting, he will be named the company’s first-ever chairman emeritus. Klappa is the longest-tenured chief executive in the utility’s history.
Current CEO and president Scott Lauber is expected to be named chairman. He has served as CEO since 2022.
Klappa joined Wisconsin Energy as president in 2003 and was elected to the board later that year. By 2004, he had assumed the dual role of chairman and chief executive officer of Wisconsin Energy and its subsidiary We Energies. He later became chairman and CEO of WEC Energy Group following the company’s 2015 acquisition of Integrys Energy Group.
He retired as CEO in 2016 but remained nonexecutive chairman. In 2017, he temporarily returned to the top executive role after his successor encountered a medical issue. He again stepped back into a nonexecutive role in 2024.
During his tenure, WEC Energy Group delivered 23 consecutive years of dividend increases, steady earnings growth and what the company calls “unprecedented capital investment in electric and gas infrastructure.”
Klappa’s influence extended well beyond the utility sector. A longtime civic and business leader, he serves as co-chair of Milwaukee 7, the region’s public-private economic development partnership. He can also be spotted courtside at Milwaukee Bucks games. Klappa is a minority investor in the basketball team. He is also a board member at Associated Bank and previously served on the boards of Badger Meter and Joy Global, which is now part of Komatsu.
He is expected to remain active in retirement.
“True to form, Gale isn’t slowing down,” said Thomas Lane, the company’s independent lead director. “We look forward to his continued involvement in economic development initiatives that will strengthen both our company and the region we serve.”
Klappa is a graduate of UW-Milwaukee with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. Before joining WEC Energy Group, Klappa served as executive vice president and CFO of Southern Company in Atlanta.
The outgoing chairman is married to Judith Klappa. The couple endowed a professorship, the Judith H. and Gale E. Klappa Endowed Professorship of Marketing, at UWM in 2016.
The same day it announced Klappa’s retirement, the company raised its dividend 6.7%.
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