West Texas A&M University’s collegiate chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) in the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business will host a special marketing seminar on the topic of “Wind Energy and Green Marketing” from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9 in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center, Maroon Room. The event is free and open to the public.

Guest speaker for this seminar is Kenneth Starcher, instructor of engineering technology in the School of Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics at WT. Starcher earned two degrees from WT, a B.S. in physics (1980) and an M.S. in engineering technology (1995). He has worked for the Alternative Energy Institute (AEI) from 1977 to 2015.

As associate director of AEI, Starcher’s area of expertise was data collection, turbine testing, information dissemination, consulting and teaching/training that AEI promoted over the past 38 years. Starcher is a well-known name in the wind energy sector in the U.S. and abroad and has visited Jamaica, China (5 times), South Africa, Korea, Germany (twice), Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, England, Holland, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Costa Rica, and Chile as well as across the U.S.

Within the renewable energy, wind turbines are used to generate electricity; a generator can convert mechanical power into electricity. When dealing with today’s fast-changing wind energy sector and its value chains in global markets, there are many firms which add value to this industry. These may include machinery suppliers, design firms and developers, components and turbine manufacturers, installation companies, wind farms, grid-connectors, etc. According to the American Wind Energy Association, in the last ten years, the U.S. wind industry has invested more than $140 billion and maintains 57,000 wind turbines having 97,960 MW of electricity.

According to Syed Tariq Anwar, professor of marketing and international business, “today’s fast changing renewable energy and its green marketing initiatives are major areas to be reckoned with and will continue to grow in the U.S. and global markets.”

The wind energy seminar is another timely program which is planned and sponsored by WT’s AMA chapter. Since 2017, the chapter has won various awards because of its timely programs and meaningful value added to the College and WT.

For more information about the seminar, contact Anwar at (806)651-2491 or Turkan Kilic, primary chapter advisor of AMA, at (806)651-2506.

-West Texas A&M University