Keith Bailey will deliver the commencement address during winter graduation ceremonies at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Commencement starts at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, in the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. More than 600 degrees will be awarded.

Bailey is the former chair, president and CEO of The Williams Companies, a global energy company in Tulsa, Okla. He joined Williams in 1973. He became chair of the board in 1994, when the company’s assets were $5 billion. Upon his retirement in 2002, the company’s assets totaled $38 billion.

Bailey is currently non-executive chair of Cloud Peak Energy, the nation’s third-largest coal producer. He is also on the boards of Apco International Oil and Gas, Aegis, Markwest Energy Partners and Integrys Energy.

A 1964 graduate of Missouri S&T, Bailey played varsity football and basketball for the Miners. He was selected to portray St. Pat the same year he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He later completed the Harvard University program for management development.

In addition to helping pay for renovations of Missouri S&T’s football stadium (now Allgood-Bailey Stadium), Bailey and his wife Pat donated $1 million to create a scholarship to subsidize expenses for qualified student-athletes. Last year, the couple provided funding for S&T’s new indoor practice facility, known as the Miner Dome. The Baileys have also helped fund a professorship in manufacturing engineering and have been big supporters of the renovation of the mechanical and aerospace engineering building and the creation of a new student design center.

Bailey is a member of S&T’s Athletic Hall of Fame, a former chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, and a member of S&T’s Order of the Golden Shillelagh donor society. He held leadership roles in Missouri S&T’s last two successful capital campaigns. He has also served on the board of trustees at the University of Tulsa and as chair of United Way America.