Enterprise Transformation: Executive Perspectives on Navigating the Future Utility Landscape

Today’s utility leaders face immense challenges in envisioning a new future for the industry: transitioning to clean energy while utilizing legacy power sources, improving reliability and resilience, managing projected growth, and creating a governance framework benefiting all stakeholders. This executive panel will share insights on navigating complex dynamics, aligning transformation initiatives with enterprise goals, building consensus, and balancing operational performance with ambitious sustainability goals. Meeting these challenges requires an agile mindset that embraces impactful innovation.

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Panel Moderator:

• Tracie Boutte, Executive Advisor, Chartwell, Inc.

Tracie L. Boutte currently serves as an Executive Advisor to Chartwell Inc. Before retiring from a 36-year career at Entergy Services, Inc., Ms. Boutte served in numerous executive roles including her most recent role of Vice-President of Customer & Business Operations where Boutte served as a key customer leader responsible for driving the evolution and transformation of Entergy’s Utility Customer Centric vision, strategy, and business priorities. As the Vice President of Customer Experience, she led the development and implementation of Entergy’s first customer experience practice including the focus on the customer’s end-to-end journey, voice of the customer research, customer data and analytics, design, development and promotion of customer products/services and customer channel management/migration to the digital experience. The new customer experience practice involved Boutte and her team to engage daily with cross-functional stakeholders in five operating companies to drive effective execution and consistently positive customer experiences. Boutte focused on influencing business leaders to effectively drive the business, engage the workforce, while keeping the customer front and center.

 

Additional executive leadership roles held by Ms. Boutte included the Customer Officer of the Incident Command team for Emergency Management, Vice-President Retail Strategic Planning, Vice President of Gas Distribution, and Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs.

 

Panelists: 

• Jody Allison, VP, Algonquin Power & Utilities/Liberty

Jody currently serves as Vice President of Business Transformation at Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp and President of Board of Directors Liberty Corp in the US. Her vast leadership experiences include executive positions in the utility industry, where she has overseen large scale operations management, financial management, performance management, talent development, change leadership and strategic planning. She has guided organizations operating in the retail, financial services, construction and manufacturing space, through enterprise-wide transformational programs.

 

• Gurb Hari, Vice President, Projects & Construction, ATCO

Gurb Hari, P.Eng., PMP is accountable for the execution of capital projects for ATCO Electric. Gurb oversees the Project Management, Construction & Commissioning, Lands, Supply Chain and Health & Safety teams. Further, he holds the responsibility to support the regulatory justification of capital with the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) and lastly, Senior-level project interactions with the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).
Gurb was born and raised in Edmonton and joined ATCO in 2006 as an Engineer-in-Training in Grande Prairie, Alberta. After obtaining his Professional Engineer designation, he advanced through progressively more responsible leadership roles. He became a Supervising Engineer within the Distribution Engineering team in 2014, and then Manager, Distribution Engineering in 2016. In 2020, he was promoted to the position of Director, System Operations where he was responsible for leading ATCO’s electricity transmission and distribution control center function. Gurb was appointed to his current role in 2022.
Gurb holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta, his Professional Engineer Designation (APEGA) and an MBA.

 

• Michael Forrester, Senior Advisor, Department of Energy

Michael Forrester is a Senior Advisor within the US Department of Energy’s Office of State and Community Energy Programs. Previously Michael was the Assistant Director of Partnerships working on program design and implementation of the 8.8 billion dollar Home Rebate Program funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, that will offer rebates directly to low and moderate income households to install new energy efficient technologies and reduce their energy bill. Michael is the former Director for Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability (OES). While at Cincinnati, Michael led projects that improved energy efficiency at municipal buildings, Installed 100 MW of solar power for that provides power for City facilities and the community, increased electric vehicle use and charging across the City, and delivered impactful community projects. Before coming to Cincinnati, Michael worked for the Ohio Development Service Agency in the State Energy Office administering programs for the installation of wind, solar, and anaerobic digesters throughout Ohio. Michael has a master’s degree from Indiana University and an undergraduate from Miami University.

 

 

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