James Robb, picked in March to head the North American Electric Reliability Corp., took office as the CEO of the Atlanta-based reliability overseer of the continental electric grid, on Monday (April 9). He comes to NERC after a sex and domestic violence scandal involving his predecessor, Gerry Cauley, led to a major NERC executive suite shakeup.
Robb was the CEO of the Western Electric Coordinating Council, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of NERC’s regional operating groups. Announcing the selection of Robb, Roy Thilly, chairman of the NERC board, said, “The board is very pleased to have found someone of Jim’s caliber to lead NERC into the future….We are confident that Jim will provide the combination of strong leadership, vision, and commitment to the reliability and security of the bulk power system across North America that is essential to NERC’s continuing success.”
According to his Linkedin posting, before joining WECC, Robb was a strategic and environmental planner at Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy), an executive head hunter for utility talent at Russell Reynolds Associates, and a retail electricity marketer at Reliant Energy in Houston. He has a chemical engineering degree from Purdue University and an MBA from The Wharton School.
In the NERC announcement of his appointment, Robb said, “This experience, combined with my past industry knowledge, has prepared me for this exciting opportunity at NERC.”
— Kennedy Maize