CAISO said Friday it was continuing to shake up its leadership team under new CEO Elliot Mainzer and recently appointed Chief Operating Officer Mark Rothleder.
The reorganization, which takes effect Monday, is a combination of promotions, expanded duties and interim appointments. All the executives involved will report to Rothleder, CAISO said. (See CAISO Leadership Changes Continue.) The changes will also bring together previously separate functions, including market policy, planning and operations, the ISO said.
“This restructuring will give us the opportunity to look at our roles and responsibilities from a fresh perspective and enhance alignment and integration from market policy to system dispatch,” Rothleder said in a news release.
Among the personnel changes:
- Khaled Abdul-Rahman, executive director of power systems and smart grid technology development, will become vice president of power system and market technology.
- Anna McKenna, assistant general counsel for regulatory issues, will step in as interim head of market policy and performance, Rothleder’s prior job, while CAISO searches for a replacement.
- Neil Millar, recently appointed as vice president for transmission planning and infrastructure development, will have an expanded role, including overseeing operations engineering services.
- John Phipps, director for real-time operations, will become executive director of grid operations.
- Janet Morris, executive director of program management, will take on an expanded role as executive director of program and application management.
- Hugo Frech, director of infrastructure engineering and network operations, will be promoted to executive director of the same areas.
“I would like to congratulate Mark and Khaled on their executive promotions and to thank the other members of my skilled leadership team who have stepped into new roles to support this reorganization,” Mainzer said in a statement.
Mainzer, the former head of the Bonneville Power Administration, became CEO on Sept. 30, a day after former CEO Steve Berberich retired. (See CAISO Retiring, Incoming CEOs Field Questions.)
One of Mainzer’s first actions was to promote Rothleder, one of several vice presidents at the ISO, to his new role as second-in-command.
Mainzer will oversee the redesigned executive organization.
“The new team will enable Mainzer to focus on strategy, culture and stakeholder engagement while strengthening the ISO’s capacity to effectively integrate new resources and enhance reliability during the transition to a decarbonized electricity grid,” CAISO said.