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Course Topics

Knowledge is your organization's most valuable and strategic resource, and a knowledge advantage, skillfully applied, is a competitive advantage.

Course topics encompass the following learning areas: fundamentals, leadership, trends and future.

Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution

Skip Collier - Professional Training Systems, Inc.

  • Basics of generation, transmission, and distribution, including electrical terminology, equipment, construction, and operating theory

Natural Gas Production, Transmission, and Delivery

Richard Moore 

  • Basics of natural gas production, transmission, and distribution, including essential equipment and its operation

Next Generation Nuclear

  • Latest research and development on creating nuclear reactors that are safer and more economical

Utility Accounting and Financial Reporting — How Utilities Make Money

Julie Desimone - Moss-Adams 

  • Basic accounting concepts
  • What the financial statements communicate and how they are used
  • Cost management and how to know when you are making money

Financial Management and Capital Markets

Brandon Lohse - Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas  

  • Value creation and the cost of capital/money
  • Financial policy development and accessing capital
  • Financial quality and credit ratings
  • Perspective of a utility sector investment manager

Regulation and Rate Making

Ric Gale; Paul Kjellander 

  • Rate making process including revenue requirements, cost allocation, and rate design
  • How rate mechanisms are used in general rate cases

Utility Legislative and Regulatory Advocacy — Understanding the Big Picture

  • Role industry advocacy plays in informing and shaping public policy
  • Responsibility of legislators, state regulators, and FERC
  • Customer preferences and the tension between stable prices and reliable services
  • State's rights vs. federal rights

Managing Grid Operations

Brian Johnson - University of Idaho

  • Challenges of operating and coordinating a more complex grid with more information, distributed resources, and customer expectations
  • Balancing supply and demand in a dynamic and complex system 
  • Enabling more flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness 

Customer Experience

Roy Barnes - Blue Space Consulting 

  • Customer experience design and management 
  • Integrate the customer experience into product and service design
  • Identify and communicate the customer experience ROI

Safety Culture

Bo Hanchey - Idaho Power

  • Creating a culture of safety that goes beyond protocols, training, and equipment
  • Committing to safety excellence that improves safety performance, operational effectiveness, and business performance

Inclusive Leadership: Understanding and Managing Unconscious Bias

Scott Horton and Melanie Miller - Delta Concepts Consulting

  • Creating personal learning and practical leadership skills to manage, lead, and contribute to a diverse and inclusive environment

Strategic Change Leadership

Roger Woodworth - Mindset Matters

  • How leadership behavior influences organizational culture
  • Gain personal insights about how "who you are" affects "how you are" as a leader
  • Systems thinking in developing a pro-active strategic response
  • Develop personal commitments and plans to be a high impact leader

Strategic Leadership in the Natural Gas Industry

  • Utility industry perspective on improving safety, managing risk, and driving continuous improvement
  • How current events affect natural gas operations, business strategy, and practices 

Strategic Human Resources

Bryan Cox – Avista

  • Energy industry challenges and the impact on the workforce
  • Digital workforce
  • Culture, engagement, and employee experience
  • Talent crisis
  • Workforce of the future

Regulatory Strategy

Noel Black - Southern Company

  • How the regulatory model supports, or does not support, the changing industry
  • How regulatory strategy supports corporate strategy
  • Current issues, including rooftop solar, extreme weather, EV infrastructure, decarbonization

Stakeholder Engagement 

Faith McKenna; Sayuri Yamada 

  • Understanding the language of our stakeholders
  • Employing effective advocacy tools and messaging to build collaboration

Corporate Strategy

Jesse Langston

  • How an industry creates a context for corporate strategy
  • Role and responsibility of the main decision makers in the forming and implementation of corporate strategy while balancing competing interests
  • Consensus-driven strategy development

Experience Innovation: Design Thinking Simulation

Lyall Samaroden - ExperiencePoint

  • Human centered design and balancing analysis with intuition
  • Terms, techniques, and thought patterns of successful innovators

The Energy Industry--Key Issues Shaping the Transformation 

  • Increased decarbonization
  • Aging infrastructure
  • Transmission reforms
  • Federal-State regulatory issues
  • New competitors and emerging technologies
  • Cyber and physical security
  • Changing customer preferences and behaviors

Global Development and the Decade Ahead for Utilities 

Grant Dougans - Bain and Company

  • Key trends in global energy markets and implications for U.S. utilities 
  • U.S. energy transition 
  • Key capabilities for leaders navigating the decade-ahead industry 

Climate Risk

  • SEC climate rules, greenhouse gas emissions, net zero goals, and resource planning
  • Understanding the impact on investors, consumers, and regulation

Retail Company of the Future 

  • Bridging capabilities across silos to create more collaboration
  • Gaining customer trust and building strategic partnerships
  • Becoming a solutions provider 

Pathways to the Future

  • Identifying and prioritizing key success factors
  • Scenario planning for the future impacts of today's management decisions
  • Aligning corporate strategy across diverse stakeholder interests

Executive Education

Mailing Address:
College of Business and Economics
875 Perimeter Drive MS3161
Moscow, Idaho 83844-3161

Phone: 208-885-6265

Email: uieec@uidaho.edu