By Rich Heidorn Jr.
NERC CEO Jim Robb told board members Thursday he’s “feeling very good about” his senior executives after what he acknowledged was a “turbulent year” for the management team.
“We’ve had a pretty turbulent year in terms of the makeup on that team, but … I keep reminding myself that every time a door closes, a window opens,” he told the Corporate Governance and Human Resources Committee on a conference call.
Since Robb joined NERC from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council in April 2018, the corporation has seen the retirement of General Counsel Charles Berardesco, and the departures of CFO and Chief Administrative Officer Scott Jones and Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer Marcus Sachs. James Merlo, vice president and director of reliability risk management, abruptly left the company in September. (See Merlo Out at NERC.)
“We have spent a lot of time over the last quarter really getting the senior team into alignment around a whole bunch of priorities … and I think we really have a very sound, and most importantly, a very aligned, team of executives leading the company right now,” Robb told the committee.
He said it was “pretty astounding, given all the change we’re going through, that our attrition level is hovering below 10%. We obviously would like to drive that number down.”
“Some of that attrition is regretted,” he added. “Some not.”
Robb said a “steering committee” of officers working with Director of Human Resources Damon Epperson “on renewing our HR programs” is paying dividends.
“One, we’re getting more heads against some thorny issues of how to continue to modernize our approach to HR to be aligned with the transformational aspirations we have for the company [NERC] and [ERO] Enterprise,” he said. “The other thing that it’s doing is also taking away everybody’s ability to complain about HR, because we’re now all part of the problem.”
He said the team is considering changes to its recruiting and onboarding practices and is “going to be taking a hard look at our performance management approach.”
Diversity and Inclusion
“Most importantly, we’ve laid out a series of aspirations for ourselves both in terms of the workplace environment we want to create for our staff, but also the importance we want to place on diversity and inclusion — that, as we continue to evolve the organization, we’re making it more reflective of the society that we live in and serve.”
Robb’s approach won an endorsement from Director Kenneth W. DeFontes Jr.
“If you design [a company in which] HR is the HR organization’s responsibility — not line management — you won’t be successful,” he said. “It sounds like you’re off on the right track to engage your leadership team [into] accepting this responsibility.”
Vacancies Remaining
NERC’s 2020 business plan reduced Robb’s direct reports to five from eight, two of which — chief financial and administrative officer, and the general counsel — are the subject of an ongoing search. Robb said last week he expects to announce the new executives by the end of November.
Sonia Mendonca, Berardesco’s former deputy, is interim general counsel, and Controller Andy Sharp, who served under Jones, is interim CFO.
Janet Sena, senior vice president for policy and external affairs, and Mark Lauby, senior vice president and chief engineer, are the only direct reports to Robb who remain from the executive team under former CEO Gerry Cauley.
Robb’s other direct report, Bill Lawrence, chief security officer and director of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, replaced Sachs in August 2018. Lawrence was mysteriously absent last week at GridSecCon, E-ISAC’s annual conference, which drew more than 600 people. (See related story, Overheard at GridSecCon 2019.)
Robb said Lawrence was “taking some time off” but expected him to return.
