Intro 0:09 What does momentum look like to us at Anterix? Throughout last year, major forces aligned to build increasing momentum in the utility industries adoption of private LTE to support the modern grid technologies that will enable a more secure, reliable and cleaner energy future. In 2023, and beyond, Anterix will continue to build the momentum behind 900 megahertz private LTE as we educate, innovate and collaborate across the energy and telecommunication sectors, to support grid modernization, and the clean energy transition. Anterix: It's where utility meets connectivity. To learn more, visit Anterix.com. Thank you for meeting us at the intersection where the worlds of energy and technology come together. Ron Beck 1:03 Hello, thank you for meeting us at the intersection presented by Anterix. For those of you listening for the first time, welcome it for returning listeners, welcome back. I am interim president and CEO Ron Beck. Today I'm joined by current UTC board of directors chair Dewey day, and incoming Chair Kirt Mayson. Dewey is currently the chair of the UTC board and is principal operations technology architect at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. His career spanned almost 30 years designing fiber optic microwave radio communication systems to support utility needs across PG and E's service territory. He served for 15 years on the western electricity Coordinating Council telecommunications Working Group. Before joining UTC's leadership team, he served UTC for four years as the chair of the Public Policy Division prior to being elected to the executive committee. Next month, Kirt will succeed Dewey as chair of the UTC's Board of Directors previously previously having served as the region nine chair and the chair of UTCs regional division. He's a 24 year employee of Northwest energy, currently serving as the senior engineer for business technology, network engineering and operations. He has previously worked for Tetra Genex company, a subsidiary of Montana Power Company, and is involved in automation solutions for communication site monitoring systems, substation remote telemetry units, and hydroelectric generation plant control systems. Prior to his utility career, Kirt was an engineer with natural gas compression industry for 10 years. Dewey, Kirt? Thank you for joining us. I just know that I covered a few career highlights for the audience. But is there is there anything else that you'd like to share with them today? Dewey go ahead. Dewey Day 2:52 Hey, thanks for that wonderful introduction, Ron. What it shows me is that I'm getting really old in this profession. So an update we gave last year you know, I don't share a lot of personal information, but I've got two kids my own. Last year I've got a grandkid join the family got got a two and a half year old grandkid that's cute as a button and stealing my my wife's heart and making her go to Idaho every chance we get. That's probably an... Ron Beck 3:24 That's excellent fun fact. I think many of our audience can can either sympathize or encourage or look forward to the day that that that's the case, Kirt, anything you'd like the audience to know about you? Kirt Mayson 3:40 Yeah, Ron, thank you, and Dewey, thank you as well. Personally, I keep everything fairly close to the chest. But I do have three daughters. So two of which are married. And one of which you will be seeing right before the Fort Lauderdale conference who lives in Fort Myers and is a hurricane Ian survivor, and her husband. So before we get to the answer, I'd like to take the opportunity here to to thank our past CEO Sheryl Riggs for her leadership and service. She guided the organization to the COVID pandemic and that was certainly unprecedented for anyone or any of us in that matter. Keeping our organization financially solvent with the clean IRS audits is also very noteworthy. I wish the best for Sheryl and her family going forward and in her in their future endeavors. What was covered in the professional summary that Ron gave above and thank you for that.. I've served on many local volunteer boards over the years and none of those were directly associated or related with with work those years and on those boards I've learned several things and two of the most important takeaways from those experiences have been number one, you find out quickly who those serve those who are passionate about the organization, and those who are not selfish with their time, to further the cause of the organization many times, but not always, those people are one of the same. With with serving on the UTC leadership and committee leadership roles that Ron mentioned, the small difference in passion versus time does not appear to be an issue. Everybody in UTC is very passionate about the organization, our mission, our vision, our values, and just loves being involved. The other lesson is kind of a personal mantra, or a goal of mine, that I look forward to hear in in the chairmanship position is to leave the organization better than when I found it. So, Ron, that's really all I wanted to add on. So thank you. Ron Beck 5:54 I appreciate that, Kirt, because, well, well, some of the audience may know, I was actually chairman of the board in 2011, to 2012. And it was one of those great pleasures that I've had in my life after having served on, as you said, a number of boards that aren't directly tied to work, many of our members, you know, answer that call to service and they, they pick up in their communities, in their schools, in their churches, wherever they may see an opportunity to land in and I think UTC is that extension, to, to work tying the two together. And it's great to have the support of our employers while we take on this little extra curricular piece, but it's an extracurricular piece that is just so important to the industry. And I've always taken it that that direction. So from a as a past chairs point of view, to somebody Dewey, who will be a past chair here, the immediate past chair and not such a long time. I'm gonna start with a question that, that I believe Sheryl asked your predecessor Paul Lambert, when he sat where you are right now. What words of wisdom can you pass along to Kirt, you know, as he looks forward to and then commences his his tenure as UTC Chair? Dewey Day 7:11 Yeah, I think thanks for that question, Ron, and Kirt, due to your concern about, you know, leaving the organization better than you found it, you're inheriting it for me, so I'm sure you're gonna make improvements. Gotta, gotta have some of the less self abusive humor. The the words, I guess, you know, some words of wisdom would be first and foremost is be open and transparent and communicative. With the staff and the board members, you know, that there is some stuff that might happen in the organization that you have to keep close to vest, but the more quickly you can get all the staff involved, and all the board of directors involved in helping you solve problems, you're gonna come up with the organization, the better off we're going to be. And then probably a second thing is that this wasn't made aware to me when I took the gig. But I've since interviewed a couple other past chairs, there's a lot of calls and emails and stuff like that, that you're going to get just kind of out of the blue with no background, and you know, people just like to reach out to the chair and say, Hey, this just happened, or this could have been done better at this event, or what have you, and those little fun little pop ups, you know, can kind of occupy you a little bit. That's a great point, Dewey, it's it's we're member or member driven organizations, that's actually you know, a great ebb and flow. For the listeners, you know, UTC is member driven. It's an elected Board of Directors of practitioners, Dewey, Kirt, Gary Vondrasek, myself, all of the people over the years that, that take that time out. And you're exactly right, over those years, you build up a network of friends, a network of colleagues. And when you become the chair, you become that that guiding person, the one they can look to, and that's that's actually a really good insight and what I experienced as well. So Kirt, hearing that and, you know, you bring a lot of new experience to this new role. But and it sounds like it's not an entirely new role for you, but both from Northwest energy and roles that we've all seen you serve in here at the UTC but parts of that experience do you think, you know, will help you leave it better than you found? Kirt Mayson 9:50 Thank you, Ron, thank you Dewey, for the for the comments as well. To that point to Dewey's comments. The UTC Ship is in full sail and on a solid course. So I don't expect to have to make a lot of changes due to your fine excellent guidance and leadership so thank you for that. At Northwestern energy You know, number one, I'm very fortunate to be an employee of the company and very thankful and gracious of my company's commitment to allow me to serve and participate in UTC. Ron, as you just mentioned, my title and day to day business is in engineering. But along with that, there's several other roles that that, you know, are not on the not on the job description or anything, and one of which is project manager. So a lot of responsibility with scope estimates, budgets, reporting, execution, and close out activities over the years as helped me hone my leadership skills, certainly not to any level of perfection, dare I say, I'll ever get to that. But that certainly is, is one of my goals. By the time I get to fortunately, retire and move on to, hopefully grandkids someday. Also, at Northwestern energy, I was very fortunate to be part of a an employee development program called Leadership Northwestern. I completed that course, in 2011. This is an internal leadership development program. That's a five week course that takes place in the various locations throughout our service territory. The intent of the course is to team build, and for the company executives, to get a hand on and look internally at future leaders within the organization. And part of that is by a group project that each team has assigned to research, provide recommendations and do a presentation to senior management and the northwestern board of directors on a corporate goal that set out by senior leadership for the business year. So that that process, in that that that development program that I went through Leadership Northwestern, certainly is helped me again hone my leadership skills and teamwork skills and improve them from where they were at. As for UTC, You know, my time in the region nine leadership as secretary treasurer was another opportunity to build on and on my leadership and teamwork skills, and learning more of the details. On the day to day business of UTC. I also had a lot of support from my super former supervisor Brian hog was who also region nine chair and from our host here, Mr. Ron Beck, being also in region nine, so I thank you for that, as well, Ron, my time served as the regional division chair had a major and profoundly positive impact, and continue to deepen my understanding of the day to day business and so forth at UTC, on who we are, what we do, and, and learning some of the most important lessons to date and UTC and likely forever. And that lesson is that the heartbeat and soul of engagement, and advocacy and everything UTC lies within the regions of the UTC and the members of those regions. Along with that I'd like to extend a thank you to the now retired mentor of mine for the regional division, who's my staff liaison, Mr. Tom Perry. We had many conversations, suggestions and recommendations back and forth during my tenure as chair of this division. And in addition to that, I found a lot of common interests outside of UTC during this time and forged great friendship with him which continues to this day. my tenure as Secretary Treasurer and vice chair on the executive committee on the board has brought along new and certainly deeper understandings and workings of the day to day business and, and the future planning of UTC so we can keep the ship going forward in the right direction. I appreciate the support from our board of directors on my continuing role in the UTC executive committee, committee leadership to the to the next level. Ron Beck 14:42 I mean, I appreciate it, Kirt, Because I think all of us in my time prior to assuming this role, we've you know, you see, you see people their contribution, it's that leadership, your willingness to step up. I know Dewey, Paul Lambert, all of the executive committee of the chairs over the years. So you're in good company, I think the, what you've described is a path that many of us have walked over the years and is a good one, it will end at a professional and a personal satisfaction that I look forward to sharing with you. Moving back to Dewey, real quick, in your inauguration speech last year in Oklahoma City, you talked about your journey of getting involved with UTC and how important that member engagement was. Much like what Kirt was just describing you the region's words of wisdom that you give Kirt about that, and how to increase that engagement. Dewey Day 15:44 Yeah, thanks for that. Question, Ron. I think I think for me that the engagement aspect is best served in a in a personal manner, right? I mean, we we get inundated with emails and letters and all the rest of these fun things all year long. And it's really easy to ignore an email that comes into your email box. If you know, you're, you're busy on, you know, other projects and things like that. But, but when you're at the regional events, and when you're working with your, your vendors and, and things like that, and you have personal time with them, right? Having a conversation quickly to say, hey, you know, I'm, you know, you're selling to utilities, obviously, because I'm a utility customer. And, you know, I noticed that you're not a member of UTC, you know, and talk with them about why that is. And some of those benefits, I was able to get a couple of recruits that signed up this year at regional conferences and vendors that are, you know, newer to utility space, or, you know, things of that nature, and get them kind of coerce them into, you know, talking with Karnel on the staff about membership and the membership benefits. And we've got a couple of extra, you know, sponsor booths out of it. So that, you know, continuing with that momentum, and, you know, the utility thing, right, as you know, everybody, everybody in utilities from Missouri, right, we're all from the show me state, driving that personal benefit, and showing them that, you know, when they do show up to conferences, or meetings or things of that nature, like that's, that's kind of the key is just that, that personal level of engagement. Ron Beck 17:26 That's that's a great point. And I guess it's a nice segue, a bit of clarification, you know, for listeners, the, the UTC is member driven, as I said a little while ago, but we have the Associate members, those that are our technology vendor partners that provide a lot of the solutions for us. And we have our core members, those that are, you know, the utility practitioners as employees. And it's been a great meeting point and Nexus over the years for us, Kirt, you know, basic spinning off of that thought on the member driven side. And, you know, we see where it's the key to our success of 75 years now as a, as an organization in this space. As you assume your role is the chairman of the board, tell us a bit how you plan to potentially increase that member engagement for events and for the association in general? Kirt Mayson 18:19 Yeah, we're certainly in Thank you. Thank you for that question. That certainly has given me a lot of thought here to this question, and, and how I can help leave the organization better than what I found it. As I mentioned earlier here in our in our podcast, additional advocacy through more regional efforts. And when I say that, I'm looking to our core members, to get not only just the the telecommunications and networking stakeholders within their utilities involved in UTC, but reaching out and branching out to potential other committee involvement and stakeholders through the security, physical security, cybersecurity, team servers, automation people, who were who were taking on more and more projects to expand our network further out into edges we never thought we would get to. So that's one area I've been thinking about the the involvement of the college students at regional and national events, not not only from a recruiting standpoint, but from an industry awareness standpoint. is certainly high on my my interest list here. What we do really isn't terribly different but it certainly is unique to to to other folks involved in telecommunications and networking. As you know, as Dewey pointed out the, the personal engagement with the with the other core members within the utilities to, to, to help encourage more involvement in committees and get additional relationships and deeper relationships established with our associate members who, who do a ton of work for UTC. And, you know, potentially at some point that they need to be involved in, in some of the committees, which is, you know, certainly been a topic of discussion for a lot of things here with the COVID pandemic, and the, you know, the the general overall employment situation nationwide here with, you know, folks leaving their jobs, retirement, you know, what have you, I think it's important from a UTC CEO. Certainly the the board chair and board, and all core members, committee chairs, to have information or collateral, if you will, available to share with those folks who are coming in new to an organization that may not be familiar with UTC. Now, the company may have been a membership, and may have been a member, but maybe they're considering not to be, but getting the getting the information, and the opportunity to educate them and point out the value of membership. And UTC is certainly one of those areas, I look to look to explore and expand upon. Well, thank you, Ron. Ron Beck 21:45 Outstanding, you know, I, obviously, in my interim role here as president and CEO, you and I are going to work very closely to that end. And that's that's exactly what we've done in the past. And that's what has made UTC successful. Keeping those members engaged, giving them topics to discuss. It sounds like you and I are going to have some busy next couple of months together. Speaking of busy, Dewey, time has flown in the year that you've been chair, I mean, it seems like just yesterday, we were welcome you to the to the podium in Oklahoma City for for your remarks and, and welcoming you to the to the chairmanship. Can you share with us some industry trends that you've seen over the past year that that you think we'll probably continue to see during the Kirt's tenure as our chair? Dewey Day 22:39 Yeah. On the industry trends front, I mean, I think one of the things that we're all feeling now, and Kirt just alluded to it in his in his last last reply, but with the the cyber threats and physical threats that are going on to the grid, we're getting a lot more requests on how do we secure things? And how do we make sure we're prepared for these types of actions? You know, the, the need to get communications out further into the edges of our network and have that communication be highly reliable. And in a lot of cases, pretty high bandwidths for what we're used to delivering to a, you know, a dam out in the middle of nowhere. So that we can video surveil and make sure nobody's you know, sabotaging that thing or something like that. I think that's one of the biggest industry tenant trends that I've seen, really emerge hard out of the last year, is that that combination of we need security systems in very remote areas that are in the public domain. And then, you know, how do we get the communication so that we have so that we have those systems up and running all the time? Like that, that's the that's the big, big 800 pound gorilla that's rolling around PG&E right now. And I think, you know, kind of across the nation as well. Ron Beck 24:11 Spot on. I mean, I, in my day job last week, while my former job, that's, that's exactly what we were dealing with is the physical security, what you what everyone is reading in the newspapers seeing on the news, attacks on substations. And that is going to be in some cases prescriptive, coming from the regulatory agencies, and we're going to have to be able to react we as UTC can help them with those technology solutions. What's worked for large utilities, small utilities. Again, that falls right back into what we as a as an organization have dealt with over the years and will continue to deal with the pandemic. America post September 11. There have been a number of things that we've worked through and have had great successes. Kirt, having heard that before we wrap up? I'm sure you and Dewey talk but as already questions on the record, if you will, before he passes the torch next month? Kirt Mayson 25:15 Ron, thank you well as not a ton of questions here, as Dewey has, has come to learn from me that even if it's a small item that I might be pondering, I'm not afraid to pick up the phone and chat or text or email. So I appreciate his willingness to respond back and provide answers here. Most of everything, you know, Dewey and I have been talking extensively here as of late over, you know, a lot of matters and, and some of those matters have included, you know, what's the what's the day to day like? You know, the interaction between the staff, the CEO, and in the board chair, and that goes to the the rest of the executive committee too. So, I feel like I've gotten a lot of lot of my questions answered, but certainly, probably not all. So I will, won't hesitate, Dewey, to reach out to you, as I, as I always do here. Ron Beck 26:24 Appreciate that, you know, the the staff over the years, has helped me it was helped me, sorry, the staff over the years helped me be successful as a chair, working with my immediate past chair, Vice Chair and that executive committee. And you know, we're here for that continuity, we're here to make the entire executive committee, the Board of Directors, our entire membership be successful in their endeavors. And there is that level of continuity year to year. So we're a resource but being member driven, play off each other very, very much. Dewey, I guess, as we start to wrap up one last question for you, or I guess, two, what's been your favorite moment in your tenure as UTC' s Chair, and what are you looking forward to at the upcoming annual conference next month in Fort Lauderdale? Dewey Day 27:14 Wow, favorite moment. I think I'm gonna have to classify as favorite moments. You know, going out to the regions, and seeing the regional conferences and seeing some of the smaller utilities that don't make it to national or I don't get to interact with at national and having more personal time to understand, you know, how the coops in the Midwest work and stuff like that, and how different the electric grid is. And in those areas versus you know, what I'm accustomed to in California, that, you know, that was always a very enlightening thing. And I always like, I always like a little bit education. So getting that interaction getting that education was was very important and very dear to me. Oh, annual conference in Fort Lauderdale. Well, I'm looking forward to doing my annual suit wearing, I don't wear a suit must have to be on stage for UTC. So now that the real event, I mean, it's getting together and again, having folks in educational sessions present ideas to you and have you think about how you could apply this differently in your utility and make your utility better, and make your utility better and more efficient for the customers that we're serving, I think is really what I look forward to every year that UTC, is that that educational experience and that direct, direct dialogue with with people who have expertise that can they can teach you. Ron Beck 28:57 It's great to hear I mean, I share that sentiment with you, because I look forward to it as well every year it's great. And, and as the chairman, you you have that satisfaction of knowing that it is a good conference and that that you've been a part of leading the organization to that annual culmination, that celebration of another year of successes. So bravo, sir. Appreciate that. Kirt, I mean fairness. Same question. You haven't had a favorite moment as chair. But what are you looking forward to? As we as we join our colleagues at the technology and telecom conference in Fort Lauderdale. Kirt Mayson 29:38 Great, thank you, Ron. I guess provided it's not copyrighted. Or I'd like to plagiarize Dewey's comment about the annual suit wearing that's, that's certainly in same thing in my wheelhouse here as well. Well, there's several things I'm looking forward to Becoming becoming Chair of UTC and continuing on the you know UTC from the 75th. And to the, to the next decade of leadership decade of existence for, for UTC, continuing on the great work that the Dewey has done, and the and perhaps if I can raise the high bar that he's really set for me. So the the other the other things I'm looking to, in addition to some warm weather coming out of a very cold winter here in the state of Montana, is much along the lines of what Dewey had said, is the personal one on one engagement and interaction with the people we talked to on the phone, weekly, monthly, with other core, you know, utility members and the Associate members of UTC that, that help and are largely responsible for, for helping us get to be able to put on this great event. On a personal note, I'm looking to engaging and talking with some of the the Florida Power and Light folks that may be on site and take this opportunity for thanking them too, for being our utility sponsor for this year's telecom and Technology Conference. As I mentioned way earlier, in the podcast, I've got a daughter and her husband who live in Fort Myers, Florida. And while they didn't suffer extensive damage during Hurricane Ian, their power was restored approximately 17 days in advance of what of what FPL had publicly broadcast. And so just would like to get some insight, you know, the engineer and me is always looking for further details on how things are done, how things are working, you know, how things work. And just looking forward to a little more insight on that. And overall, just seeing a what's expected to be an exceptional turnout. Warm weather, good social networking, that networking with folks, like Dewey said that can can help solve problems that we were that we're all faced with here in our in our Member utilities, day jobs, and, and have fun. That's, that's really what it boils down to at the end is fun and enjoy the experience. So with that, Ron, thank you for the for the opportunity to comment on that. Ron Beck 32:34 I appreciate that, you're quite welcome. And that's a nice point that Florida Power and Light is one of the sponsoring host utilities, is bringing in their resiliency and recovery work, they're going to have a display there between the convention center and the hotel and it's going to allow attendees to go through and see exactly the tools and technologies that they use to faciliate some of that restoration. Resiliency is a hot topic across this industry whether its to wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, whatever happens to impact gas, water, electric utilities, it's there and we're all preparing for it, it is a hot topic and I appreciate that. Also appreciate both of you joining us today, Dewey, Kirt, thank you so much for your time. THank you to Anterix for sponsoring this podcast, it's my first, and I'm looking forward to future discussions with our members as we take up topic of interest to our members. And with that, thank you for meeting us at The Intersection. Intro 32:34 Thank you for meeting us at The Intersection. For more information about the Utilities Technology Council, visit otc.org.