A Regulatory Primer for Board Members with Non Regulatory Backgrounds with Dr. Mark Jamison

Welcome to Episode 26, Season 7, of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor^®. This episode coupled with the prior Episode 25 on Overcoming Homophily forms two episodes themed to span both Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

I'm joined in this program by four of five women who on May 1^st, 2019, published together a collective autobiographical book titled The Energy Within Us. It is their stories across the arc of their lives from childhood environments and experiences that shaped them to, and through, their long careers in executive leadership roles in the energy industry. These women have a great deal in common. They're all dear friends. They're all accomplished executive leaders in the energy industry and their careers. They're all giving back by serving broader leadership roles in corporate and non-for-profit boardrooms and social service organizations. They all have unbounded generosity of spirit. And they all, as you will hear, exude the energy within themselves.

The discursive style of our interview revealed a wealth of advice for current and future business leaders especially in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Topics covered include – role models, mentors and coaches, courage to challenge the status quo and hold leaders accountable, assumptions and misunderstandings, barriers to developing instrumental networks and receiving developmental feedback.

Program Guide

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 26

The Energy Within Us

A wide-ranging discussion about the upbringing and developmental experiences of four pioneering corporate leaders

0:00  Introduction to the program and to guests and authors Telisa Toliver, Carolyn Green, Joyce Hayes Giles, and Hilda Pinnix-Ragland.

2:54    Part 1: What motivated the authors to write their autobiographies?

15:04    Break 1

15:43    Part 2: Upbringing, Environment, and Foundational Experiences

15:49    Author Joyce Hayes Giles and segregated Mississippi

22:01    Background on Medgar Evers

24:00    Audio clip of speech of Medgar Evers

27:56    Audio clip of speech of Myrlie Evers Williams

31:35    Break 2

31:51    Author Hilda Pinnix-Ragland and the North Carolina farming community

36:49    Author Telisa Toliver and growing up in white communities in Oklahoma

43:08    Break 3

43:32    Part 3 Formative Decisions, Influencers, and Mentors

52:15    What is misunderstood about people?

56:02    Break 4

56:46    Part 4 Barriers to Professional Development: Forming Instrumental Networks and Critical Feedback and Coaching.

1:09:24    Break 5

1:09:42    Part 5: Conclusion and Closing Comments and Advice from the Authors

1:12:51    End of Program and Preview of Episode 27, a primer on the regulatory construct that regulated utilities operate within.

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

 Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

See you next time.

Informative and Helpful Links 

Amazon Link to the book. The Energy Within Us

 https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Within-Illuminating-Perspective-Trailblazers/dp/1945875615

Links to Biographies of Guests

 Joyce Hayes Giles

https://dpsfdn.org/about/board-and-staff/joyce-hayes-giles-2/ 

Carolyn Green

https://www.ase.org/biography/carolyn-green

Telisa Toliver

 https://www.aabe.org/docs/pages/19/file/Toliver%20-%20Short%20Bio%202013.pdf

Hilda Pinnix Ragland

 https://www.aabe.org/docs/fck/file/Leadership%20Profile%20-%20Hilda%20Pinnix%20Ragland.DOC

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Director of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 18 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of corporate clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 32-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast. 

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Episode 25, Season 6, of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor®. This is part one of two episodes aimed as a celebration of Black History Month.

In August 2020, USA Today reported that 11% of the directors across the 50 largest companies in the S&P 100 are black. On the other hand, gender diversity on boards has shown better improvement over the last seven years. BoardEx just released data that revealed gender diversity on corporate boards in the US increased about 10% over the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020, that is from 19% to 28.8%, a year on year average growth rate of about 1.4%. France and Norway are at 44% and 39% respectively, but their growth rate is slower than the US. You see, they started from a higher percentage level in the first place. We agree with all the benefits of having diverse boards, but we think that a 1.4% growth rate is not even close to good enough.

Since the 2017 founding of our sister company, Lyceum Leadership Consulting, we’ve placed diverse candidates in 24 out of 43 of our board and executive searches, or 56%. It's a track record we're proud of, but we can do better. If we assume the good intentions of everyone involved in board selection decisions to improve upon those numbers, then what is holding us all back? What is causing the stubborn persistence of diversity levels across the world? Lyceum Leadership Consulting thesis is that we are battling our own human nature.

In my search work over the last decade and a half, I often observed that a missing link in creating boardroom diversity is often a lack of diversity in the professional networks of the board of directors or the nominating committee themselves. As often, candidates are identified and selected from these networks. In order to understand what causes a lack of network diversity to exist, it's instructive to understand sociology applied to these social networks.

In this program, we examine ways of counteracting our own human nature to ultimately make significant improvements in boardroom and executive diversity.

Joining me on the program is Associate Professor of Sociology, James M. Cook, from the University of Maine. One of Dr. Cook's areas of expertise is in the area of social network analysis. I discovered Professor Cook's work in my own research on this perplexing issue. I was especially intrigued and informed by an academic paper that he co-authored in 2001 called Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.

Program Guide

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 25 

Why is Achieving Diversity So Hard?

Overcoming Homophily and Our Own Human Nature with Sociologist James Cook 

0:00     Introduction to the program and Dr. James M. Cook, Associate Professor of Sociology, from the University of Maine.

4:26     Definition of Homophily

7:25     Homophily in the boardroom setting and the limitations of the board

11:20   Break 1

11:19   Social Capital: Bonding and Bridging

14:34   Break 2

14:47   Part 1 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Finding people who are different

25:35   Break 3

26:19   Part 1 (continued): Finding, or being found, at the individual level

33:46   Break 4

34:29   Part 2 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Uniting through the instability that bringing people who are different causes

40:24   Break 4

40:51   Part 3 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Managing conflicts that are bound to arise.

44:15   Break 5

44:38   Conclusion: Intergroup relations and advice toward improvement in diversity outcomes

55:06   End of Program and Preview of Episode 26, part 2 of 2, in celebration of Black History Month

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

See you next time.

Informative and Helpful Links

USA Today Article

Biographies of Guests

Dr. James Cook

Dr. James Cook is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maine at Augusta. His primary areas of interest in research and teaching are political organizations, social networks, social media, and the sociology of gender. That interest is reflected in the development of new courses at UMA in Social Networks and Analyzing Social Media and in community service (where his current projects are attempts to deepen student connections with the UMA Community Gardens civic engagement project and the Maine State Legislature).

His present research interests include applications of social network and social identity theory to social media, the development and testing of a social network model of state legislators, and the application of workplace theories of glass ceilings and escalators to explain patterns of cooperation among legislators along and across lines of gender.  He is also engaged in research regarding the social network characteristics of publicly-communicating groups of sexual minorities.

Dr. James Cook received a B.A. in Sociology from Oberlin College in 1993 and M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 1996 and 2000, respectively.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Director of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 16 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of corporate clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 30-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

Inspiring award-winning performances from your talent:

Crossover applications to business leadership from the theatrical development process

with Charles Newell, Artistic Director of Court Theatre in Chicago

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 24

Welcome to Episode 24, Season 5, of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor®.

I'm joined in the program today by Charles Newell, the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of the renowned and critically acclaimed Court Theatre in Chicago.

This interview was recorded in the summer of 2019 as the Court Theatre's production of the play, The Adventures of Augie March, had completed its record-breaking performance run. We had intended to publish this episode early this year in 2020, but COVID hit and it seemed a little bold to put this out at the early stage of the pandemic. The world had other pressing items that deserved attention. But now, in the middle of the holiday season, we've been without live theater and entertainment for nine months, we thought this interview might be not only informative, but also soothing at this stage of the pandemic.

This interview is timeless and gets deep into a theatrical production's creative process as seen through the mind's eye of the director. In general, we, as an audience of entertainment, be it sports or the performing arts, are often spoiled with the perfection and professionalism of the finished product. But what is involved or required from a leadership perspective to develop and burnish the performance into the form to which we are also accustomed? What goes on in the business of theater has crossover applications to all business leaders.

We'll cover a wide range of topics in today's program. We'll outline the organizational form of the Court Theatre, including its governance, funding and management structure. But the majority of our time will be spent stepping through the phases of the creation of a production from script selection to closing night.

Program Guide

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 24

Inspiring award-winning performances from your talent

with Charles Newell, Artistic Director of Court Theatre in Chicago

0:00     Introduction to the program and Charles Newell, Artistic Director of the Court Theatre in Chicago

3:20     Court Theatre’s history, governance structure, funding sources and unique structure with the University of Chicago.

5:09     Achieving high caliber of performances on a smaller budget than peers theater companies in Chicago

7:25     Unique mission and social-societal outcomes of Court Theatre in the realm of national theater.

10:39   Break 1

11:19   Phase 1 of the Theatrical Development Process: Finding and developing a script.

17:11   Break 2

17:27   Phase 2 of the Theatrical Development Process: Developing the look and feel of the production. Revealing the collaborative creative process.

25:01   Break 3

25:35   Phase 3 of the Theatrical Development Process: The Casting Process. Dealing with barriers and constraints.

32:45   Break 4

34:51   Phase 4 of the Theatrical Development Process: Production development, rehearsal, and refinement. Inspiring and motivating actors to perform at their best.

39:20   Break 5

39:46   Phase 5 of the Theatrical Development Process: The arc of production and performance evolution from opening night to closing night. Keeping a production evolving and improving in the absence of continuous rehearsals.

49:33   Break 6

50:03   Retrospective self-reflection on the evolution of a theater director.

55:06   Conclusion and coming attractions.

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

See you next time.

Informative and Helpful Links

https://www.courttheatre.org/

http://manualcinema.com/

Biographies of Guests

Mr. Charles Newell

Charles Newell is the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of Court Theatre. He was awarded the SDCF Zelda Fichandler Award, “which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through singular creativity and artistry in theatre.”

Charlie has been Artistic Director at Court Theatre since 1994, where he has directed over 50 productions. He made his Chicago directorial debut in 1993 with The Triumph of Love, which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Production. Charlie’s productions of Man of La Mancha and Caroline, or Change have also won Best Production Jeffs. Other directorial highlights at Court include All My Sons, The Hard Problem,  Man in the Ring; One Man, Two Guvnors; Satchmo at the Waldorf; Agamemnon; The Secret Garden; Iphigenia in Aulis; M. Butterfly; The Misanthrope; Tartuffe; Proof; Angels in America; An Iliad; Porgy and Bess; Three Tall Women; Titus Andronicus; Arcadia; Uncle Vanya; Raisin; The Glass Menagerie; Travesties; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Invention of Love; and Hamlet. Charlie has also directed at Goodman Theatre (Rock ‘n’ Roll), Guthrie Theater (The History Cycle, Cymbeline), Arena Stage, John Houseman’s The Acting Company (Staff Repertory Director), the California and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals, Juilliard, and New York University. He has served on the Board of TCG, as well as on several panels for the NEA. Opera directing credits include Marc Blitzstein’s Regina (Lyric Opera), Rigoletto (Opera Theatre of St. Louis), Don Giovanni and The Jewel Box (Chicago Opera Theater), and Carousel (Glimmerglass).

Charlie was the recipient of the 1992 TCG Alan Schneider Director Award, and has been nominated for 16 Joseph Jefferson Director Awards, winning four times. In 2012, Charlie was honored by the League of Chicago Theatres with its Artistic Achievement Award.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Director of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 15 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of corporate clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 30-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

 This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

“Service First, Safety Always”

The Anatomy of a Private Equity Investment: from M&A roll-up, to IPO, and beyond

with Advanced Disposal Services’ Chairman and CEO Richard Burke

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 23 

Welcome to episode 23 and the beginning of Season 4 of A CEO's Virtual Mentor.

I'd like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that have enabled us to bring you this podcast, and to you, ladies and gentlemen, our devoted listenership, for your continued encouragement and programming suggestions.

And let me mention that we cannot improve without your feedback and suggestions. Please take a moment and subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform, and rate us with your feedback.

There are two main features on our program today.

I. We occasionally feature a spot on the program called Famous Last Words. We will intersperse excerpts of a dramatic scene from the 1956 movie, “Patterns…of Power!”, through the breaks in our program. Patterns’ brilliant screenplay was written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. The Patterns script predated Twilight Zone and is considered by many as the finest piece of writing Rod Serling has ever done and brought him instant acclaim. We'll feature the dramatic scene between ruthless, cold, and calculating owner of the corporation Walter Ramsey, played by Everett Sloane, and youthful, charismatic and considerate industrial engineer, Fred Staples, played by Van Heflin. Ramsey is impressed with the performance of Fred Staples at a company Ramsey has recently acquired. Ramsey's grooming Staples to replace the struggling, but highly principled Bill Briggs, played by Ed Begley, as the second in command at the company.

II. For our main event in the program, I'm joined by Richard Burke, Chairman and CEO of publicly-traded solid waste services company, Advanced Disposal Services. 

We'll be discussing Richard's leadership in a company that delivers a service punch well above its $1.6 billion weight class. We'll cover its evolution from private equity backed roll-up of solid waste businesses through its IPO in October of 2016 and right up to just prior to the announcement on April 15, 2019, that Waste Management would purchase Advanced Disposal.

Our interview covers a lot of ground and addresses an array of situation-specific business leadership topics, including:

• The economics of the solid waste business.
• A company’s evolution from private equity ownership to IPO
• M&A and the "Four D’s" behind a seller’s motivation
• Corporate Reputation and Integrity
• Reputation Derived from Investors on the Path to an IPO
• Safety and Corporate Culture
• Post-IPO Board Composition Considerations 

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Informative and Helpful Links

“Patterns…of Power!” (Full Movie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMnU4faUMUY

Program Guide Episode 23

“Service First, Safety Always”

The Anatomy of a Private Equity Investment: from M&A roll-up, to IPO, and beyond

with Advanced Disposal Services’ Chairman and CEO Richard Burke

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 23 

0:06     Introduction to Program

1:05     Introduction to Famous Last Words feature “Patterns…of Power!”

2:51     Interview with Richard Burke

11:02   Music Break 1

11:19   Patterns Scene 1 of 4   

15:24   Music Break 2

15:43   Richard Burke on Landfill Economics

16:48   The Secondary Vertically Integrated Market

19:09   Geographic Adjacencies

21:28   The Seller’s Consideration and “the Four D’s”

23:03   Reputation Requirements for M&A

23:20   Music Break 3

23:26   Private Equity Interest and Approach in the Solid Waste Sector

27:13   Advantages of Funding/Partnering with Private Equity

28:48   Music Break 4

29:07   Patterns Scene 2 of 4   

30:22   Music Break 5

30:40   Transactions that Formed ADS Today

32:47   Reputation Derived from Investors on the Path to an IPO

33:49   Assembling the Management Team During the Formative Transactions

35:12   Culture and “Service First, Safety Always”

38:49   Music Break 6

38:55   Patterns Scene 3 of 4   

39:23   Music Break 7

39:36   Post-IPO Board Composition Considerations

44:56   Post-IPO Management Team Skills/Experience Considerations

46:43   Music Break 8

47:10   Richard Burke’s Individual Leadership and Foundational Experiences.

52:22   Concluding Comments

52:59   Patterns Scene 4 of 4   

Biographies of Guests

Mr. Richard Burke

Mr. Burke serves as Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Disposal. Prior to serving as CEO, he served as President of the company and was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, purchasing, risk management, human resources and strategic planning. He joined Advanced Disposal following the acquisition of Veolia Environmental Services Solid Waste in November 2012, where he was President and CEO of Veolia Environmental Services North America since 2007.

Mr. Burke began his employment with Veolia in 1999 as Area Manager for the Southeast Wisconsin area and served as Regional Vice President for the Eastern and Southern markets until he was appointed Chief Executive Officer.  As CEO, Mr. Burke was responsible for leading Veolia Environmental Services in the U.S. and Canada, which included annual revenue of $2 billion, more than 200 locations and a team of 10,000 employees.  Prior to joining Veolia, he spent 12 years with Waste Management in a variety of leadership positions.  He currently serves on the Board of the Environmental Research and Education Foundation and in September 2017 was named to the Board of Estre Ambiental S.A., which is the largest waste management company in Brazil and Latin America by disposal capacity. Mr. Burke holds a bachelor’s degree from Randolph Macon College.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 14 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 28-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. 

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

 A Remarkable Corporate Turnaround:

The “Take-Private” of Talen Energy with CEO Ralph Alexander and CFO Alex Hernandez

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor^® Episode 22 

Welcome to Episode 22 and May 2019, which marks Lyceum’s three-year anniversary of publishing A CEO's Virtual Mentor^®.

Today I'm joined by Talen Energy’s CEO, Ralph Alexander, and CFO, Alex Hernandez. We'll be discussing the remarkable turnaround of Talen Energy that Ralph and Alex have been leading.

Talen Energy in its privately-held form today is unique and its evolution to its current state illustrates the range of leadership approaches available for a company in a “take-private” setting. There's a definite before, middle, and beyond to the take private transformation. Talen is still in the early stage of the “beyond” era. The red-letter date of the take-private was December 6th, 2016.  And to set context, we have to back up a little bit.  About a year and a half before the take-private, Talen Energy was formed when Pennsylvania Power & Light, or PPL, spun off their power generation assets and combined them with those belonging to private equity group Riverstone. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on June 1st, 2015, with initial ownership being 65% PPL and 35% Riverstone.

That company, which Ralph and Alex refer to as “Talen 1.0,” had about 15,000 megawatts of capacity split across fuel sources, with about 43% from natural gas, 40% from coal, and 15% from nuclear (from the company’s one nuclear facility, Susquehanna). Those assets sold into two major wholesale markets in ERCOT and PJM, plus a small amount in New England. Talen generated a proforma of $4.3 billion in 2014 revenues.

On December 6th, 2016, Riverstone purchased the remaining 65% of Talen, making Talen a privately-held company, and appointed Ralph and Alex to lead the company. They faced the massive task of sorting out what the company had and planning what they would do with it. 

Our interview covers a lot of ground and addresses an array of business leadership questions, including:

• What are the expectations and requirements that a private equity owner has for a company and a management team?
• What historical decisions prior to new ownership of a company led to lackluster performance?
• What were the strategic views embedded in the private equity investor’s thesis about a company?
• Why invest more deeply in a company that is suffering from lackluster performance? Can new management and their decisions have a marked impact?
• How does a new leader ferry the costs out of and efficiencies into a business after acquisition?
• Does private ownership provide benefits for a company?
• What does a productive, strategic partnership between a CEO and a CFO look like?
• What is the role of a “strategic” CFO?
• Is good leadership universal? Is a management team and its profitable approach transportable to other sectors? 

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Informative and Helpful Links

Talen Energy's Website - https://www.talenenergy.com/

Riverstone's Website - https://www.riverstonellc.com/

Economic dispatch of power generation resources explained by the EIA - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=7590

Program Guide Episode 22

A Remarkable Corporate Turnaround:

The “Take-Private” of Talen Energy with CEO Ralph Alexander and CFO Alex Hernandez 

0:00     Introduction to Talen Energy and CEO Ralph Alexander and CFO Alex Hernandez

4:00     Expectations and requirements that Riverstone had for the company and the management team.

7:11     Historical decisions prior to new ownership of the company that led to lackluster performance.

9:17     Break 1

9:35     Why invest more deeply in a company that is suffering from lackluster performance?  Can new management and their decisions have a marked impact?

12:32   How does a leader lead the costs out and the efficiencies into the business through others?

20:11   Break 2

20:30   Does private ownership provide benefits for a company?

26:04   Break 3

26:32   What does a productive, strategic partnership between a CEO and a CFO look like?

30:24   What is the role of a “strategic” CFO?

34:29   Break 4

34:49   What is the next chapter for Talen Energy?

39:00   Break 5

39:24   Is good leadership universal? Is a management team and its approach profitability transportable to other sectors?

44:52   Closing comments and coming attractions

Biographies of Guests

Mr. Ralph Alexander

Ralph Alexander was appointed President and CEO of Talen Energy on December 6, 2016. He was previously a Partner with Riverstone Holdings, LLC.

For nearly 25 years, Mr. Alexander served in various positions with subsidiaries and affiliates of BP plc, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies. From June 2004 until December 2006, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Innovene, BP's $20 billion olefins and derivatives subsidiary.

From 2001 until June 2004, he served as Chief Executive Officer of BP's Gas, Power and Renewables, and Solar segment and was a member of the BP Group Executive Committee. Prior to that, Mr. Alexander served as a Group Vice President in BP's Exploration and Production segment and BP's Refinery and Marketing segment. He held responsibilities for various regions of the world, including North America, Russia, the Caspian, Africa, and Latin America. Prior to these positions, Mr. Alexander held various positions in the upstream, downstream, and finance groups of BP.

Mr. Alexander currently serves on the boards of Enviva Partners, LP, Talen Energy Corporation, and CHI St. Luke’s Health. He has previously served on the boards of Foster Wheeler, Stein Mart, Inc., Amyris, and Anglo-American plc. In addition, Mr. Alexander is currently Chairman Emeritus of the Board of NYU School of Engineering and a Trustee for New York University.

He received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Brooklyn Polytech (now NYU School of Engineering - Polytechnic) and holds an M.S. in Management Science from Stanford University.

Mr. Alejandro (Alex) Hernandez

Alex Hernandez was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Talen Energy on December 6, 2016. Before that appointment, Mr. Hernandez was a Senior Advisor at Riverstone Holdings, LLC, where he focused on the power sector and on the acquisition of Talen Energy.

​Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Hernandez was CFO of Terraform Power until November 2015. Mr. Hernandez was formerly Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, with a primary focus on coverage of North American companies in the merchant power, utilities, and renewable energy sectors, providing strategic and capital markets advice to management teams and boards of directors.

​Mr. Hernandez currently serves as a Roundtable member of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Mr. Hernandez received a B.A. in Economics from Rice University, a B.S.C. from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from Columbia University.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 14 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 28-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. 

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

The Earth Day Episode - A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 21

Climate Change as the Foremost Challenge of Our Generation with Dr. Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and CEO of PSEG

Happy Earth Day Weekend.  Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day.  In celebration and recognition, we welcome you to our special Earth Day 2019 episode. 

I am joined by Dr. Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) in Newark, New Jersey.  This Episode 21 covers a number of topics relevant to our Mother Earth including the subject of climate change which Dr. Izzo considers to be the foremost challenge of our generation.  Our sweeping climate-oriented discussion ranges from the utility industry’s role in combatting climate change, PSEG’s actions and service orientation, cognitive biases in political decisioning, the insurance industry’s role, and nuclear energy’s opportunities in the war on climate change, among other items.   

Newark, New Jersey-based PSEG has a $30 billion market capitalization as a public utility holding company that provides regulated electric and gas service through its subsidiaries, as well as investing in solar generation projects and energy efficiency programs. 

Dr. Ralph Izzo has served as President and CEO since 2007.  His educational foundation is in mechanical engineering and physics. He holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Columbia University.

We express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Informative and Helpful Links:

​Illustration of the omission bias through the trolley problem - 1 min 37 sec

Program Guide Earth Day Episode

Climate Change as the Foremost Challenge of Our Generation with Dr. Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and CEO of PSEG 

0:00      Introduction to Episode 21 and Dr. Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and CEO of PSEG

2:33     Introduction of Climate Change as the foremost challenge of our generation

7:08     A board of directors’ role and interaction with society beyond the boundaries of the corporation

10:44    Break 1

11:06    A utility company’s natural position of responsibility and influence in society. 

13:16    PSEG’s actionable steps for society: Step 1 - Energy efficiency and reference to Lyceum’s Earth Day 2018 Episode 15 on Energy Efficiency

15:17    PSEG’s actionable steps for society: Step 2 – Clean energy production and supply

15:52    PSEG’s actionable steps for society: Step 3 – Reliability of energy supply

16:39    Break 2

16:54    What’s in a name?  “Public Service” Enterprise Group

21:10    The human affinity to socialize and associate with reference to Lyceum’s Episode 18 on Associations and Alexis de Tocqueville  

22:55    Break 3

23:14    Cognitive Bias in group decisions on climate change and the role of policy

29:24    Break 4

29:42    The role of nuclear energy in combatting climate change

29:54    What is working against the expansion of nuclear energy in the US?

34:04    The insurance industry’s role in combatting climate change. Reference to Lyceum’s article: Risk & Reward: The Insurance Sector on the Climate Frontlines

35:54    Concluding statements - optimism in the face of climate change. 

Biographies of Guests

Dr. Ralph Izzo

Ralph Izzo was elected chairman and chief executive officer of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) in April 2007. He was named the company’s president and chief operating officer and a member of the board of directors of PSEG in October 2006. Previously, Dr. Izzo was president and chief operating officer of Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G).

Since joining PSE&G in 1992, Dr. Izzo was elected to several executive positions within PSEG’s family of companies, including PSE&G senior vice president – utility operations; PSE&G vice president – appliance service; PSEG vice president - corporate planning; and PSE&G vice president - electric ventures.  In these capacities, he broadened his experience in the areas of general management, strategic planning and finance.

Dr. Izzo is a well-known leader within the utility industry, as well as the public policy arena.  He is frequently asked to testify before Congress and speak to organizations on matters pertaining to national energy policy.

Dr. Izzo’s career began as a research scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, performing numerical simulations of fusion energy experiments.  He has published or presented more than 35 papers on magnetohydrodynamic modeling. Dr. Izzo received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in applied physics from Columbia University.  He also received a Master of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in finance, from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. He is listed in numerous editions of Who’s Who and has been the recipient of national fellowships and awards.  Dr. Izzo has received honorary degrees from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Doctor of Science), Thomas Edison State University (Doctor of Humane Letters), Bloomfield College (Doctor of Humane Letters), Rutgers University (Doctor of Humane Letters) and Raritan Valley Community College (Associate of Science).

Dr. Izzo is the chair of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).  In addition, he is on the board of directors for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL) and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. He also is on the advisory board for the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peddie School and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment Advisory Council, as well as a member of the Visiting Committee for the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion.  Dr. Izzo is a former member of the Columbia University School of Engineering Board of Visitors.  In addition, he is a former chair of the Rutgers University Board of Governors and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. 

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 14 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 28-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast. 

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 20

The ESG Canvas for Corporate Reporting with Pat Kampling, Chairman and CEO of Alliant Energy

Welcome to Episode 20. I am joined by Pat Kampling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alliant Energy in Madison Wisconsin.  This Episode 20 covers several areas of topical interest including a discussion on ‘sustainability’ and the quickly emerging and rapidly evolving area of ESG or “Environmental, Social, and Governance” criteria.  Institutional investors are demanding action and attention to ESG and CEO’s are responding by charting their companies’ course. This is not without tension for corporate management teams. We’ll discuss with Pat how she and Alliant have been addressing ESG and hopefully put you at ease.

Madison-based Alliant Energy has a $10.8 billion market cap as a public utility holding company that provides regulated electric and gas service through its subsidiaries, Interstate Power and Light and Wisconsin Power and Light to 410,000 gas customers and just shy of one million electric customers. Pat has served as chairman and CEO since 2012 and prior to that, she was COO for about a year and prior to that, she was CFO and Treasurer and has an extensive finance background. Foundationally, Pat is an engineer and a registered professional engineer at that --- a true renaissance woman.

I’d like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

The UN “Principles for Responsible Investment” or PRI are a set of six principles that provide a global standard for responsible investing as it relates to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors. Organizations follow these principles to meet commitments to beneficiaries while aligning investment activities with the broader interests of society.

The PRI movement began in early 2005, when the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan invited a group of the world’s largest institutional investors to join a process to develop the Principles for Responsible Investment. The Principles were launched in April 2006 at the New York Stock Exchange. Since then the number of signatories has grown from 100 to over 1,800.

I’ll briefly summarize the six principles that investor-signatories publicly demonstrate:

1. They incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes.
2. They are active owners and incorporate ESG issues into their ownership policies and practices.
3. They seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which they invest.
4. They promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles within the investment industry.
5. They work together to enhance their effectiveness in implementing the Principles.
6. They each report on their activities and progress towards implementing the Principles.

Sweeping in its reach, isn’t it? But what triggered a Madison-based company to consider these UN Principles as a guide?

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Informative and Helpful Links

The UN “Principles for Responsible Investment” or PRI.

Alliant Energy’s 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report

Goldman Sachs’ ESG Report from 2017.  See the impressive list of “Key Metrics and Indicators” on page 30 – 32.

Program Guide Episode 20

The ESG Canvas for Corporate Reporting with Pat Kampling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alliant Energy 

0:32      Introduction to Episode 20 and Pat Kampling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alliant Energy

2:40     ESG discussion and the Sustainability Report of Alliant Energy

7:46     Break 1

8:12     Investor demands around ESG cuts through politics

9:05     Safety at Alliant Energy

13:38    Break 2

13:52    Culture shaping at Alliant Energy

21:04    Break 3

21:20    Experience and advice in moving from CFO to CEO

22:46    Increasing and managing the tempo of an organization

28:18    The CEO role as a liberating role

28:55    Farewell and congratulations on Pat Kampling’s retirement effective July 1, 2019

28:54    Preview of upcoming Episode 21 with Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and CEO of PSEG in Newark, NJ 

Biographies of Guests

Ms. Patricia Leonard Kampling

Pat Kampling is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Alliant Energy Corporation. 

Her broad experience within the utility industry has proven essential to Alliant Energy’s ability to ensure competitive costs and reliable service for customers, while strategically leveraging a balanced generation portfolio.

Pat has responsibility for leading the performance and strategic growth of Alliant Energy’s regulated utility companies (IPL and WPL), serving customers in more than 1,200 communities throughout Iowa and Wisconsin. She also provides executive direction for Alliant Energy Resources, the parent company of Alliant Energy’s non-regulated businesses, which includes Alliant Energy Transportation and non- regulated generation facilities.

Pat joined Alliant Energy in 2005 and served originally as Alliant Energy’s Vice President of Finance. She then transitioned into roles as Vice President and Treasurer; Vice President Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In these roles, Pat guided the financial objectives of the company, supported regulatory proceedings, promoted environmental commitments, and was instrumental in the development and communication of a long-term strategic plan.

In 2011, Pat became President and Chief Operating Officer. She was responsible for overall corporate operations and was instrumental in the execution of Alliant Energy’s capital plan, commitment to customers, environmental planning and safety initiatives. She was named Chairman, President and CEO in 2012.

Before joining Alliant Energy in 2005, Pat spent more than 20 years in increasingly responsible finance, treasury, regulatory and engineering positions within Exelon Corporation, ultimately serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Exelon Enterprises and the Treasurer of Commonwealth Edison.

Pat holds bachelor’s degrees in engineering and economics from Swarthmore College, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School, and is a registered Professional Engineer. She serves on the Boards of Directors of American Transmission Company and Briggs & Stratton Corporation.

In February 2019, Pat announced her intent to retire from the company on July 1, 2019. The Board of Directors appointed Alliant Energy President and Chief Operating Officer John O. Larsen to succeed Kampling. More information on that announcement can be found in this article.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 14 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 28-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 19

Redefining Leadership in a Traditional Industry

with Mary Powell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Mountain Power Corporation

Welcome to Episode 19. I am joined by Mary Powell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Mountain Power in Vermont.  This Episode 19 presents a unique CEO profile in Mary Powell.  Many of the CEO’s that we have featured in the past have come from science, technology and engineering disciplines or law or finance backgrounds. 

Mary was raised in an artistic household on New York’s Upper West Side.  Her father was a hardworking, constantly auditioning New York actor.  Mary attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts made widely famous by the 1980 dramatic film Fame based on student life at the School of Performing Arts. Mary studied art with a particular passion for charcoal drawing with its kinetic form of big, bold, and fast movement.  She was graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts from Keene State College in New Hampshire. 

Her career experience prior to Green Mountain Power included a breath of variety – for a large fund manager specializing in money markets, for state government, and in banking.

Through our conversation it will become very apparent how Mary’s creative and liberal arts background and variety of experience renders her as a uniquely effective leader in a utility industry that most often abides by tradition.

I’d like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

See you next time.

Informative and Helpful Links

An April 3rd 2013 article on architecture website Arch Daily entitled “Can Architecture Make Us More Creative?” by Jonathan C. Molloy posed an interesting lead in question: “What do MIT’s Building 20, the Ancient Greek Agora, 18th Century British teahouses, and early 20th century Parisian cafés have in common?”  “They were some of the most creative spaces in the world.” Goes the answer.  

The Green Mountain Power INSPiRE SPACE. See video link on our program page on the Episode 19 page on our website.

Website: https://gmpinspire.com/

From Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist Seneca, “Mihi crede, verum gaudium res severa est.” Epistulae morales, 23, 4 ---- “Believe me, true joy is a serious business.” 

Program Guide Episode 19

Redefining Leadership in a Traditional Industry

with Mary Powell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Mountain Power Corporation

0:32     Introduction to Episode 19 and Mary Powell, President and CEO of Green Mountain Power

2:17     Introduction to Green Mountain Power

3:44     Progression of Green Mountain Power accomplishments and award recognition.

6:43     Origins of orientation toward fulfilling ‘customer dreams’ and ‘love’ for customers

7:52     The Tesla Powerwall as an answer to customer dreams and to ridding the dependence on ‘peakers’ in Vermont

10:38   Break 1

11:01   Innovation at Green Mountain Power

13:11   Physical space and its role in innovation and GMP’s INSPiRE SPACE. See video link on our program page on the Episode 19 page on our website. And “Can Architecture Make Us More Creative?” by Jonathan C. Molloy

16:54   Break 2

17:09   Boundaries or lack thereof at GMP

21:24   Break 3

21:46   M&A at Green Mountain Power and 'the ability to soar'

25:13   Final Break 4 

25:28   Conclusion: Mary Powell’s leadership that draws upon her upbringing and liberal arts education

27:40   Famous Last Words – Seneca “Mihi crede, verum gaudium res severa est.” Epistulae morales, 23, 4

28:06   Preview of upcoming Episode 20 and Patricia Kampling, CEO of Alliant Energy in Madison Wisconsin. 

Biographies of Guests

Ms. Mary Powell

Mary Powell is nationally recognized as an energy visionary, positioning Green Mountain Power as a leading energy transformation company.  Delivering clean, cost-effective and highly reliable power to customers all across Vermont, GMP offers cutting-edge products and service to reduce costs and carbon.  In 2017, GMP was named one of the top 10 energy companies in the world by Fast Company.  GMP has also achieved the top score for mid-sized utilities in the East Region in J.D. Power’s 2016 electric utility residential customer satisfaction study.

Mary has served as president and chief executive officer for GMP since 2008.  She initiated and implemented a strategic and comprehensive restructuring of the company that dramatically transformed GMP, and she has been the backbone of a cultural transformation and service quality improvement.  Fast, fun, and effective is her motto.  Under Mary’s leadership, GMP became the first utility in the world to become a member of B Corp, showing a commitment to use energy as a force for good.

Mary has delivered on an ambitious energy vision to provide low-carbon, low-cost and highly reliable power to Vermonters.  As a result, GMP became the first utility to offer to help customers go off-grid, built Vermont’s largest wind farm, made Rutland, Vermont, the Solar Generation Capital of New England, and installed smart grid technology across GMP’s service territory.

In 2012, Mary led the acquisition of Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS), with a promise to generate $144 million in savings for customers.  GMP has grown from serving 88,000 customers in 2008 to serving over 260,000 customers, with revenues of more than $640 million and $2 billion in assets.

And in 2015, Mary led another partnership with Tesla, with GMP becoming the first utility anywhere to offer customers the Tesla Powerwall battery.

In 2014, Mary was recognized by Powergen as the Woman of the Year, in 2015 The Burlington Free Press named her Vermonter of the Year, in 2016 Fast Company named Mary one of the 100 most creative people in business, and in 2017, Mary was named one of the top 25 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market by CEO Connection.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 16 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 27-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

LinkedIn: The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Please rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 17

"Leading a Regional Electricity Grid and the Transition to a Clean Energy Future"

with Gordon van Welie, President and CEO of ISO New England

Welcome to Episode 17. I joined Gordon Van Welie, President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England on a clear late summer's day at his office just outside of Springfield, Massachusetts. The general population would likely not be aware of the pivotal and critical role that an independent system operator plays in the reliable delivery of electricity across large regions of the United States moment by moment, 24/7.

ISO New England is an independent system operator that is responsible for the transmission of electricity across the six-state New England region that includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The company's power system engineers, economists, computer scientists and other professionals ensure that the region has reliable, competitively priced wholesale electricity today and into the future.

Gordon hails from South Africa and spent the foundational years of his career in a variety of engineering roles with Eskom, South Africa's electric utility. He joined Siemens and served as vice president and general manager of their power system's control division, delivering IT solutions for electric companies. From Siemens, he joined ISO New England as COO in September of 2000 and, shortly thereafter, was promoted to CEO in May of 2001.  

Thanks for listening.  We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe on iTunes.  See you next time.

Informative and Helpful Links

FERC Orders 888 and 889

ISO New England’s website

Program Guide Episode 17

Leading a Regional Electricity Grid and the Transition to a Clean Energy Future

An Interview with Gordon van Welie, President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England 

0:30     Introduction to Episode 17

1:07     Introduction to ISO New England and Gordon van Welie its President and CEO

2:18     Foundations and origins of Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Operators

3:50     Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Orders 888 and 889

4:30     Critical policy question – how to decarbonize the electric system.

8:05     Break 1

8:22     The regional, state and federal level policy tapestry that affects the ISO

14:50   Break 2

10:56   The regional-level versus state-level policy in New England

17:55   Break 3

18:17   Operational risks such as fuel supply and the changing generation resource mix

19:23   “Fuel security” explained

21:24   Break 4

21:46   Is there a phased approach to a carbon-free future that assures power availability?

24:16   Electricity storage and other constraints on arrival speed to our clean energy future

26:40   Break 5

27:01   What can policy makers do to alleviate the constraints?

28:47   Resources, people and talent at the ISO that lead and stay abreast

30:26   Working with universities – intern programs and R&D work with professors

32:23   Closing comments – Perspective for young people coming up in a dramatically more exciting electric industry.

Biographies of Guests

Mr. Gordon van Welie 

Gordon van Welie is President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England Inc., having previously served as the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He joined ISO New England from Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution LLC, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Power Systems Control Division and was responsible for managing information technology solutions for electric companies. Before coming to Siemens, Mr. van Welie held several positions at ESKOM, South Africa’s electric utility based in Johannesburg. Mr. van Welie is a member of the Executive Committee of the US National Committee of CIGRE and the Member Representatives Committee of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). In 2016, he was awarded the Leadership in Power Award from the IEEE Power & Energy Society.

Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes: https://t.co/a70rtSiQnW

Follow Leadership Lyceum on:

         Our website: www.LeadershipLyceum.com

         LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-linquist-682997

         Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum

Email us: info@LeadershipLyceum.com

Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically.  Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. 

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 17 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 28-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum in the podcast section at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically. Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcasts is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.