Fortnightly Under Forty: Brian Van Abel

Of the 64 rising stars, we selected eleven of them to highlight. These eleven exemplify the impressive record and pace of accomplishments of the best of our industry's next generation. The inspiring stories of Haben Goitom of Alliant Energy, Jennifer Wischnowsky of Ameren, Keegan Odle of Burns & McDonnell, Delevane Diaz of EPRI, Sean Meredith of Entergy, Illinois Commissioner Maria Bocanegra, Aaron Curtis of ITC, Ana Stachowiak of NYPA, Lisa Dailey of Northfork Electric Cooperative, Abbey Roy of Southern Company, and Brian Van Abel of Xcel Energy are told in part in the interviews that follow. These unique up-and-comers are already leading the industry's transformation and mission-critical groups within their organizations, in some cases as a COO, CFO or division VP.

PUF: You've recently become the CFO of Xcel Energy at a young age. What do you do there and what's your typical day like?

Brian Van Abel: The day is a little less typical than I expected it to be when it was announced earlier this year before we felt the full impact of coronavirus. My typical day now is, like all of us and many of our employees, about working from home, or at least the ones of us that can. I greatly appreciate all the hard work that our frontline employees are doing out there and ensuring that the lights stay on and the gas keeps flowing.