We first met Chris Gould when he participated in our roundtable, "The Power of Innovation." The roundtable, which we published in January and February 2017, included Chris as well as innovation officers of Duke Energy, Oncor and Southern Company, and a former innovation officer of Edison International.
Chris has three titles at Exelon. He is senior vice president for corporate strategy. He is chief sustainability officer. And, if those aren't cool enough for you, he is the chief innovation officer.
We ran into him again at the recent and mammoth Innovation Expo. Nearly three thousand utility employees converged in Washington to compete for prizes for the most promising innovations. And to further build an innovative culture.
This remarkable event, celebrating the creativity and passion of thousands of people at this not-stodgy utility, is highlighted in August's PUF. Check out the extensive cover article with interviews, pics and video.
One of the interviews is with Chris. You need to give it a read. At his company, Chris is part curator - part impresario of innovative ideas, initiatives and implementation. Improvements in the public interest can originate anywhere internally or anywhere externally.
Chris graduated Penn State in 1993 with a BS in civil engineering. He surely can handle stresses. He was a senior engineer in the nineties with EA Engineering, Science and Technology and with URS Corporation. He next picked up an MBA at Pitt.
That's when he joined Exelon in the Philadelphia area. First as a senior analyst, then Chis was manager for fundamental analysis for the Power Team - a neat title, then director for financial planning, and then director for pricing/structuring.
He became a vice president in 2008, for corporate financial planning. Two years later he was made senior vice president for corporate strategy, his current gig.
Seems to us that Chris is a likely Top Forty Innovator. In November's PUF, we've announced, we'll publish our new annual list, the Fortnightly Top Forty Innovators.
As we're said, everyone making the Top Forty will have distinguished themselves during the last year, serving the public interest. Invented costless clean electricity generation? That would do it.
Or you could have developed or advanced the adoption of a technology, application, method, regulatory approach, or public policy that has the potential to serve the public interest. Understanding that such projects are predominantly the product of groups of people, rather than lone wolves like Nikola Tesla, a nominee can be an organizational or project leader that urged and stirred action and achievement.
The Top Forty issue in November will be a big deal. Interviews. Photos. Audio. Video. It will highlight some of the most outstanding leaders in our field. Like — perhaps — Chris Gould.
The now twice-per-month magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly. In PUF, impact the debate frequently.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com