By Tom Kleckner

SANTA FE, N.M. — Shortly after her surprise appointment last month as SPP’s next CEO, Barbara Sugg was asked about her goals in her new role.

Sugg paused, her mind apparently working overtime to decide whether or not to answer the question. Obviously, the time wasn’t right. (See SPP Board Taps Barbara Sugg as New CEO.)

Following her first Board of Directors meeting as CEO-elect two weeks later, RTO Insider asked Sugg, 55, whether she had been able to put together her thoughts on SPP’s future direction.

“I’ve been working on the transition since January. The transition is full steam ahead,” she responded, noting that she would be meeting with staff later that week for the first time as the incoming CEO.

“I’ll assure them of the continuity and focus on culture and all the things that separate SPP and make our company a great place to work,” Sugg said.

The transition includes finalizing with the board the exact date for CEO Nick Brown’s retirement, thought to be in April. Brown announced his retirement last July after 16 years in his role.

In the meantime, Sugg said, she is working to balance her time between staff and the RTO’s many stakeholders.

“Stakeholders include our member companies, our regulators, our interested parties and market participants, the entities out West that have committed to us, and those that haven’t,” she said, alluding to SPP’s market offering in the Western Interconnection. (See SPP Board OKs $9.5M to Build Western EIS Market.)

“My immediate focus is for [Western entities] to get to know me and know how I operate, so we can work on those relationships,” Sugg said. “There’s a lot of introduction that has to happen over the next few months, and that means a lot of time living out of a suitcase. That’s OK with me, because it’ll be worth every mile.”

Wide Support

Sugg’s ability to build strong, enduring relationships with stakeholders, staff and others in the electric industry has resulted in a wide-ranging network that has been quick to offer support. She said her life hasn’t changed, but the feedback she’s received has been “overwhelming” and “heartwarming.”

“I’m hearing from colleagues in the industry. I’m hearing from CEOs welcoming me into the … world of CEOs,” Sugg said.

SPP members and staff, especially those in the information technology department she has led since 2010, have reacted favorably to the announcement. But while Sugg calls the CEO position her “dream job,” she is quick to say she wouldn’t have done it without those around her.

“It’s such an amazing accomplishment that, while I’m proud, I know I didn’t do it on my own,” she said. “I earned the job based on my own skills, but I have such a fantastic team. I’ve done what I can to develop them and I’ve developed leadership across the team at all levels of the organization. That has enabled me to be more successful in my career path.

“But you can’t do that if you’re not well-supported and have people that are empowered to really own their own careers and do what is right for SPP,” Sugg said.

The fact that she will soon become the only woman to lead a North American grid operator is not lost on Sugg. Women CEOs are rare among S&P 500 companies — only 29 for the time being — and rarer still among RTOs and ISOs.

PJM Board of Managers Member Susan Riley served as that RTO’s interim CEO for six months last year after the retirement of Andy Ott. Audrey Zibelman, once PJM’s COO, has run the Australian Energy Market Operator since 2017.

Sugg says her gender wasn’t an issue for the board when it made its selection. Indeed, the directors told her the subject didn’t come up until an hour after her selection, she said.

But Sugg’s work in founding and developing the Leadership Foundation for Women, a nonprofit that provides professional development and education for women, illustrates the importance she places on women in the workplace.

“I don’t want to be selected because I’m a woman,” she said. “The fact I’m a woman is certainly something I’m very proud of. I see it as setting an example for other women. But I don’t ever, ever want to be selected for anything because of gender. I want to have earned it, like everybody else.

“I’m very proud, obviously, but that’s not what the story is about. It’s about an IT leader that’s become a CEO. It’s about somebody from a different background,” Sugg said. “If we’re really successful, then we’ve taken gender out of the equation, and that’s important to me.”

The IT leader will soon be running an organization with almost 700 employees, most of whom have known no other CEO than Brown.

Sugg suggests that SPP, which has expanded north and westward in recent years and added a day-ahead market, will continue growing in new directions under her watch.

“We’re not content to stay where we are. We never have been.”