Candidate 2
This candidate would be an exceptional, seasoned leader to step in to a 5-7-yr role as a senior leader of a gas company. He has an exceptional resume of all facets of leadership at two large investor owned utilities. He is now a senior director of Gas Governance.
He has been with his present company since the early 2000s in a variety of advancing roles, hand-picked for each promotion. He began his gas career out of high school with Minnegasco as a PT meter reader in October of 1979, where he advanced, similarly, through several mergers and promotions.
I know both this candidate and his references. These are top-tier senior managers who are in the “giving back” phase of their careers, and all are active (or retired) committee heads for valuable MEA committees. The candidate has excellent credentials as what we can call a “servant-leader”. Twice during our call he opened the subject of how he enjoys developing staff and training skills and culture.
If you had a sudden opening, and needed a steady hand to take over while developing staff, this would be an excellent choice. Co-ops sometimes call this role a “Range Rider”, where they place a practiced leader who is nearing retirement into a role that needs stabilization. My candidate has a firm commitment to work an additional 5 to 7 years, perfect to hone a team. He is healthy, with three plus decades of work experience.
As a young man he worked in the family store, participated in several HS teams where he was chosen as captain for several JV teams. He had good grades but was not on the college path. After a family business was sold due to Big Box pressure, our candidate signed on as a PT meter reader for Minnegasco. Soon bumped to a helper role on a main crew, and FT, he earned his pipefitters card. Assessing rather severe labor vs. management tension, he opted for a school path, to focus on industrial relations, management, supervision and collective bargaining. While this was not a BS or BA program, he earned a certificate for Industrial Relations – He describes this as the equivalent to the upper level coursework for a BS, and was offered to working adults through the University of Minnesota’s Extension Service. He graduated from that program “With Distinction” in 1992.
Certificate in hand, he left the union role to become a buyer for supplies and all manner of equipment. He was habitually plucked out of the line-up of good workers for promotion, taking an upward step every 3-4 years. He actively participated in smoothing several company mergers.
This candidate has written several updates to the Minnesota One Call law, aimed at simplifying communication to consumers. Well-regarded from this effort, previous co-workers lobbied him to apply for an open position at his current firm. He interviewed, but recognizing his talent his application was shifted to another opening, at a higher level, which had also become available. He was hired into the company as a Principal Gas Standards Consultant.
He has remained active with Compliance training and quality of service. He has a broad awareness of running operations for the multistate system, having worked with Gas Transmission and Gas Operations at the director level. His SAP work management leadership has been essential at driving consistent work group execution, and his skillset includes Geospacial Asset Data, purchasing, all aspects of O&M and emergency response. He has regularly worked with state regulators. He has been called as a witness before administrative law judges, regarding the company’s LNG peak shaving plants, and decisions made during significant winter storms. Company lawyers advised they hoped to utilize his expert testimony again, and has earned kudos for his diplomacy with regulators in multiple states.
This candidate is a very likeable ‘do-er’, having proven his aptitude on the job, and shown by his several promotions that he is trusted as a senior manager.
Now at the top of his career, I asked him, why consider a change now, and leave a company where you have been so successful? He explained very clearly that this was a choice for work-life balance [which I can explain further]. He and his wife are looking to move out of their current home, downsizing. He emphatically claims he plans to work at least five years, maybe ten. Each time we touched upon this he reminded me of his interest in developing staff, and training up the next generation of leaders. –His MEA committee work is proof of this, where he serves in an unpaid opportunity to provide peer leadership and growth.
I have summaries of four stories that exhibit times where this candidate showed his talent with ROI savings, initiative, and execution.
This candidate’s current base salary with bonus are approximately $250,000. He has never earned less than 100% of his bonus, and sometimes exceeds the top of the range by up to 30 %.
Would you like to discuss this candidate? He is open to relocation in the Midwest. Please contact Tom Jackson, at Ideabuilder Search, at (612) 474-4343 to ask about Candidate #2.