James H. Booth

Mr. James H. Booth is a graduate of Warfield High School and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Morehead State University. He began his career in coal mining operations during college, when he worked weekends as an underground coal miner. Over the years he has developed his mining operations into multiple surface and underground divisions. This conglomerate coal group is known as Booth Energy. Mr. Booth’s mining operations produce 8 million tons per year delivered to various utilities such as Georgia Power, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, American Electric Power, and US Steel. In addition, Mr. Booth has developed a network of retail operations and real estate holdings in several locations in Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia. Today his operations employ more than 2,000 employees.

Active in the community, Mr. Booth also serves on the Boards of the University of Pikeville, Inez Deposit Bank, East Kentucky Regional Industrial Development Authority, and the Kentucky Coal Association. He was also the past Chairman of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, past Board Chairman and Regent of Morehead State University, and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Cincinnati in the Cleveland District. Inducted into Morehead State University’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 1996, he was named the institution's outstanding alumnus in 2000. He became a member of the Kentucky Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame in 2014.