Westar taps banker as chairman

? A current member of Westar EnergyâÂÂs board of directors — Charles Q. Chandler IV — has been appointed chairman of the electric utilityâÂÂs board to replace David Wittig, who resigned last month.

Wittig, 47, had been WestarâÂÂs president, chief executive officer and board chairman. But he resigned in the face of federal charges that he was part of a scheme to defraud a Topeka bank on a $1.5 million loan. He has pleaded innocent to the charges. The allegations are not related to WestarâÂÂs business.

James Haines, who replaced Wittig as WestarâÂÂs president and chief executive, said separating the board chairman position from the executive positions was âÂÂan important stepâ in moving the company toward âÂÂa model of good corporate governance.âÂÂ

Chandler, 49, is president and director of Intrust Financial Corp. of Wichita, a bank holding company in Kansas and Oklahoma. He has served on WestarâÂÂs board of directors since 2000.

Westar announced ChandlerâÂÂs appointment in a four-sentence news release and referred questions about it to ChandlerâÂÂs assistant, who did not return a message.

Jim Zakoura, an attorney representing industrial customers of Westar, said he believed ChandlerâÂÂs financial expertise would help the company with its current financial problems.

But Zakoura said he had hoped that Westar would have picked someone to lead the board from outside the current board to provide a fresh perspective. He said that Chandler was among Westar board members who had voted for compensation agreements for Wittig that were worth millions of dollars.

Westar is Kansasâ largest electric utility with nearly 650,000 customers. Its service area includes Lawrence and northeast Kansas.

Shares of Westar closed up 10 cents Thursday at $11.40 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Several WestarâÂÂs corporate directors have significant Lawrence or Kansas University ties:

⢠Director Gene Budig is a former KU chancellor and Endowment Association trustee emeritus.

⢠Director Frank Becker is a Lawrence resident, a 1958 KU graduate, chairman of the Endowment AssociationâÂÂs board of trustees and a member of its Executive Committee. He also is a former member of the Kansas Board of Regents.

⢠Director John C. Nettels Jr. has a KU undergraduate degree and earned a KU law degree in 1985.

⢠Director R.A. Edwards earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in business at KU. He also serves on the Endowment AssociationâÂÂs executive committee.