PORTLAND, Ore. -- Northwest Natural Gas Company, dba NW Natural (NYSE:NWN), today announced Kathryn Williams will join the company as director of Government and Community Affairs. Williams will take over the position from Gary Bauer who is retiring after 18 years at the company.

"Gary's knowledge of the inner workings of the state legislature in Salem have been invaluable to our company as we navigated the many different pieces of legislation related to natural gas over the years," said Tom Imeson, vice president of public affairs. "We thank him for his long-time service to the company and wish him the best in retirement."

Williams joins NW Natural from the Port of Portland, where she most recently was State Affairs Manager overseeing the Port's state government relations efforts. She worked for the Port since 2007 where she also managed the development of several rail and trade and transportation related initiatives. Prior, Williams was an associate at a regional public affairs consulting firm, and spent more than a decade working on issues for transportation providers, utilities, infrastructure companies and non-profit organizations.

"We're grateful to have someone of Kathryn's caliber join our team," added Imeson. "She's in an excellent position to lead our efforts in Salem related to carbon policy and other issues."

Williams currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Transportation Forum and the Oregon Rail Users League, and is involved with numerous non-profits and community based organizations.

A native of Oregon, she is a graduate of The Colorado College where she received a bachelor's degree in History and Latin American Studies. Williams completed an executive education program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on Economics and the Environment and is a graduate of the Portland Business Alliance's Leadership Portland program.

About NW Natural
NW Natural (NYSE:NWN) is headquartered in Portland, Ore., and provides natural gas service to about 740,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. It is the largest independent natural gas utility in the Pacific Northwest. Additional information is available at www.nwnatural.com.

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