AltaGas founder remains mum on sudden resignation of CEO David Harris

CALGARY — The chairman of AltaGas Ltd. says its leadership team is "stepping in and stepping up" in the wake of the sudden departure of president and CEO David Harris last week.

AltaGas founder and chairman David Cornhill, who is filling in with director Phillip Knoll as interim co-CEOs of the Calgary-based company, said at the start of a conference call he will not take questions about why Harris has left the company.

He repeated information in a statement last week that Harris and the board of directors mutually agreed on the resignation in the wake of a non-specific "complaint" that the board is investigating.

He says the company has already started the process of finding and hiring a permanent CEO and cautioned that may take some time.

Cornhill repeated the complaint is not related to AltaGas' strategy, operations or financial reporting, but didn't explain what it was related to or why the company is investigating if Harris's resignation is final.

Harris, who has been with Calgary-based AltaGas since 2010 and its top executive since April 2016, oversaw the company's $6-billion deal to buy Washington, D.C.-based energy utility company WGL Holdings, Inc., which closed in July.

Cornhill founded AltaGas in 1994 and was its CEO until Harris took over.

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The Canadian Press