The Grid's Wood Poles and More

Osmose began in Buffalo, New York in 1934 when five businessmen started a company with a single wood preservative patent. The preservative was to treat timbers that supported mine shafts and railroad bridges. 

Now, headquartered south of Atlanta, Osmose leverages more than eighty years of innovation with some five thousand employees, to help customers in the energy and utilities industry minimize risk and maintain resiliency to keep their systems strong. That still involves utility poles but has evolved into much more with the use of technology. 

Here, PUF finds out what Osmose is doing to help companies with much-needed resiliency efforts. This conversation with Osmose CEO Mike Adams examines the evolution of the services company and what it means to the grid.
 

PUF's Steve Mitnick: Why is your role at Osmose, and how did your background lead to this position?

Mike Adams: First of all, I'm Irish. I immigrated to the U.S. in 1989 and spent most of my career with GE. I left GE, then went and worked for Alstom Power, and came back to GE when GE acquired Alstom, so I've been in the energy utility industry thirty-one years, but mostly on the generation side.