Connecting the dots.

Most of us appreciate the importance of electricity in our daily lives.  Practically everything we use today requires power or was made possible by power. Where our understanding falls short is upstream of the outlet – the wires poles, substations, power plants, bulk products, and fuel supplies that make it all possible.  That’s where I can help to connect the many dots that comprise the energy sector. My career journey has afforded opportunities for me to learn about the interdependence and integration of the energy business.

My long career and my family’s involvement in the energy business have immersed me with a thorough understanding of the oil, natural gas and electricity sectors.  My father was with Shell Oil for thirty years, my brother rounded out his 45th year at Halliburton, and my son is a geologist for an oil company today.  I majored in petroleum land management at SMU and worked pipeline rights-of-way for a few years. 

My father introduced me to the stock market with a handful of shares of Southern Company when I was in grade school, and I still own and follow SO today. I understand the vertically integrated utility business and ratemaking as well as competitive power and gas markets.

The first seventeen years of my career were spent in the natural gas business, first with regulated pipelines and later transitioning to competitive sales, transportation and storage, hedging and asset management.  I understand the mechanics, financial requirements, and challenges of fuel supply.

The last twenty years have been largely focused on power.  I coordinated natural gas supply for a fleet of new power plants located across the country. Competitive power was extremely competitive in most parts of the U.S., and plant operators were under pressure to

manage to the lowest possible fuel supply cost. Owning billions of dollars worth of plants was not a guarantee for profits.

At NextEra Energy I handled regulatory and legislative affairs for power plants and competitive power businesses in Texas.  At the time, NextEra was the largest wind farm owner, but its plants were curtailed due to lack of transmission. In 2005 I worked with a terrific lobby team to build support for and pass SB 20, the “CREZ” legislation that resulted in $8B in transmission lines being constructed for renewable energy. This was a tremendous opportunity to learn about all power generation resources and the political might of a major utility within a state.

This transmission backbone made possible the addition of more than $50 billion of ERCOT wind turbine development, launching Texas as the national leader in renewable power that continues today.  

For 12 years at Direct Energy I held positions of increasing responsibility in governmental and regulatory affairs. I led a team of professionals to manage the vast regulations that impact wholesale and retail electric power across several states.  Along the way there were mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, investigations, litigation, energy technology advances, and a host of challenges to our businesses.  I was elected to serve the retail electric providers on the ERCOT Board of Directors in 2019-20.

My teams have been run as profit centers with a single-minded focus on improving the bottom line through profit opportunities or cost reductions. We kept a “scorecard” of annual performance and always made huge contributions to the company through our efforts.  

I bring this same competitiveness, prioritization, and focus on profitability to my consulting work.