The board appointment follows the announced retirement of Larry R Brown, effective July 1.

Abbene will be responsible for information systems operations, applications and infrastructure for the entire corporation, including its subsidiaries. He will report to C Henry Besten, senior vice president of strategic development.

For the past five years, Abbene has served as Arch Coal's director of application services. Prior to joining Arch, he was employed with Monsanto and affiliated companies for almost 20 years, and has a total of 35 years of professional experience in information technology. Abbene has a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering and management science from Chicago’s Northwestern University and a master of business administration degree from Southern Illinois University.

"With his years of professional management experience and his thorough understanding of Arch Coal's systems, Michael is a natural fit for the CIO position," Besten said.

Brown has served as Arch Coal's sole CIO since the company was founded in 1997. During his tenure, Arch Coal won numerous awards for technology leadership and innovation, including the highly competitive CIO 100 Award.

"Larry has made significant contributions to Arch Coal and its predecessor companies for nearly 35 years," Besten said. "His focus on people and process improvements made him very successful during his career. We wish Larry the very best in his retirement."