Robeson, 41, joined DEFS in May 2000 as vice president and treasurer. Previously, she was with Kinder Morgan, Inc. (formerly KN Energy, Inc.) from 1996 to 2000, where she held the position of vice president and treasurer since 1998. From 1987 to 1996, she was with Total Petroleum, Inc., ascending to the position of assistant treasurer. She started her career in 1982 as a certified public accountant with McGladrey & Pullen in Des Moines and joined Ernst & Young in Denver in 1984. Robeson earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Northwest Missouri State University.

Backes, 42, joined DEFS in April 1998 as senior attorney. Prior to joining DEFS, he was senior associate attorney with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP from 1993 to 1998.  He began his career in 1987 with Kelly Stansfield & O’Donnell as an associate attorney. Backes earned a bachelor’s degree in business management in 1983 and a juris doctorate with distinction in 1987, both from the University of North Dakota.

“These are qualified and proven executives with significant experience and expertise,” said Jim Mogg, chairman, president and chief executive officer of DEFS. “They have delivered outstanding results and I am confident in their abilities to continue making strong contributions to the future success and continued growth of DEFS.”

Both will become members of the DEFS policy committee.

DEFS is a premier North American midstream company that leads or is among the nation’s leaders in the gathering and processing of natural gas, transportation and marketing of NGLs. Other services include transportation, marketing and storage of natural gas. DEFS has 2,700 employees and operates in 16 states across the five largest natural gas producing regions in North America, extending from western Canada to the Gulf Coast. The Denver-based company owns and operates 65 plants, 57,000 miles of pipeline and had revenues of $10 billion and assets of $6 billion in 2001. Current handled volumes exceed 8 TBtu/d of natural gas and 400,000 Bbls/d of NGLs. DEFS also owns the general partner of TEPPCO Partners, L.P., a publicly traded master limited partnership.

DEFS was formed by combining the Duke Energy and Phillips Petroleum natural gas gathering and processing businesses. Duke Energy owns approximately 70 percent of the joint venture and Phillips Petroleum owns about 30 percent. More information is available about the company at www.defs.com.