By Rich Heidorn Jr.

ATLANTA — James Merlo, one of NERC’s most high-profile executives, abruptly left the organization last month, the latest in a series of senior staff changes under CEO Jim Robb.

Merlo, who holds a Ph.D. in applied experimental and human factors psychology, was vice president and director of reliability risk management. A West Point graduate, he joined NERC eight years ago after a 22-year career with the Army, one among a cadre of ex-military men brought into the organization by former CEO Gerry Cauley.

Merlo regularly presented at board meetings and served as the master of ceremonies for NERC’s annual Human Performance Conference. (See NERC Conference Ponders the Human Element to Reliability.)

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. (See NERC Parts Ways with Chief Security Officer.) NERC’s proposed 2020 business plan reduced Robb’s direct reports to five from eight.

In a brief interview Wednesday at GridSecCon 2019, Robb declined to comment on Merlo’s departure, which occurred in late September. Employees who had been reporting to Merlo are now reporting to Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer Mark Lauby. Merlo did not return a request for comment.

Mysteriously absent from GridSecCon, the four-day conference sponsored by the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, was E-ISAC Director Bill Lawrence.

Lawrence, who was promoted to vice president and chief security officer in August 2018, was listed as a speaker on the conference’s agenda but was replaced by Robb as the presenter of the session’s opening and closing comments. No explanation was given to attendees for his absence.

“Bill’s taking some time off,” Robb said Thursday without elaborating.

Asked if he would be returning to NERC, Robb said, “I think so.”

Changing the Culture

Robb has not spoken publicly about the management changes, but he provided some insight into his management philosophy in an interview recorded by the executive search firm identifying candidates to replace Jones and Berardesco. (See NERC Leadership Search Announced.)

He said he seeks to build his executive team, and the relationship between NERC and its six regional entities, on a “foundation [of] trust.”

“I use the word ‘trust’ as a very, very important feature in terms of the way we work with the regions but also the way my executive team needs to work. Because I don’t think that’s been a hallmark of the organization in the past,” he said.

“There’s comfort; there’s disclosure; there’s honesty; and things are handled in a very trust-based way,” he explained. “When you have that, then you can deal with the conflicts that are going to naturally come up. When you can deal with that, you can generate commitment because you can explore all the outcomes and then you can focus on results … but it’s all got to start with trust.”

As a result, Robb said he will be looking at the interpersonal skills of the candidates.

“What we’re trying to de-emphasize at NERC and across the regions is leading through positional authority and more leading through inspiration and collaboration,” he said. “So, the social skills … will rank very, very highly in terms of my personal evaluation of their fit for the role and their ability to be effective going forward.

“One of the key things that’s going to be important to me and to how I judge my success here is that the organization will function as well without me as it does with me. And it requires you not to be reliant on any one personality. That’s my goal: That NERC becomes less a personality-driven organization, which I think is how people would have described it a couple years ago.”

Robb said Wednesday that “we’re making good progress” on the cultural transition. “But that’s kind of a life’s journey,” he added. “I don’t think you ever declare victory on it. But [we’ve come] a long way.”

He said NERC should be announcing a new CFO and general counsel by the end of November. “[The] interviews are moving along. We’ve got a great series of candidates,” he said.