2008 - La Plata Electric Association, Inc.

[new board member profile]The board has opted to move LPEA’s annual meeting fromSeptember to early May. The company’s books are closed December31, and the external audit is completed in late March, so this decisionallows the financial information presented at the annual meeting tobe more current. The meeting date change also means that annualelection for board seats will now be in May.At LPEA, the board and employees are your partners ineconomic recovery. LPEA works hard to help our members findenergy efficiencies and take advantage of available local, state andfederal rebates and tax credits. With other energy producers andproviders and local governments, LPEA helps fund the Four CornersOffice for Resource Efficiency. At 4CORE’s website, www.fourcore.org,you can learn about many opportunities to increase energyefficiency and reduce energy costs for your home or business.You can count on LPEA to continue its commitment tocommunity. For example, last year our linemen in Pagosa Springsspearheaded a “fill the bucket truck” food drive — that was just oneof many volunteer efforts LPEA turned out for in 2008.As an LPEA member, you are an integral part of the cooperative.Please join us for our 70th Annual Meeting, May 9, at 9:00 a.m. atPagosa Springs High School.Joe Wheeling joinsthe board in 2008He’s not all that well-known inthe community, yet he’s amember of one of the most active,sustainable farm and ranchingfamilies in Durango.Ed Zink, LPEA board member for District 4, who stepped down in2008, called him “a rock star.”He’s been on both sides in corporate negotiations, and knows theproverbial board room quite well, and he’s not even 50 years of age.LPEA is pleased to have welcomed Joe Wheeling as a newdirector in 2008.“I grew up on the Montana/North Dakota border in very rural NorthDakota with a Montana address,” says Wheeling, whose grandfather wasone of the founders of the rural electric cooperative that served the area,McKenzie Electric Cooperative, Inc.. “I grew up on a ranch, and for eightyears I was the only kid in my grade in the one-room school I attended.”Wheeling, however, left the ranch to attend Colorado State University,where he met the woman he eventually married, Jennifer James, scionof Durango’s well-respected James family of the James Ranch. Afterspending some time in Los Angeles in real estate development, Wheelingwent on to secure his MBA from the Wharton School of Business, at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.He served as a management consultant with the accounting firm ofDeloitte & Touche, primarily working with utilities of all types, garneringexperience through rate studies and cases, cost allocations and more.An additional client was, however, Accor Hotels, and in the midst ofa project that involved corporate management of one of its divisions,Wheeling was offered a job.“As a young guy, I saw it as an opportunity to get into the board room,and it made a lot of sense,” says Wheeling, who was not yet 30 at the time.“So I ended up on the executive committee and went on to head up RedRoof Inn.”Accor had acquired Red Roof, so Wheeling was on the acquisitionside. He rose to CEO of Red Roof, and when Accor determined it wastime to spin off that hotel division, he found himself on the seller’s side.Heading up the “new” Red Roof, Wheeling has rebuilt it from the groundup, and has only recently stepped down as its CEO, though he will remainon the board of directors.Concurrently, Wheeling has been involved behind the scenes in thegrowth of the James Ranch organic produce division, with Jennifer Jamestaking the lead. The Wheelings have lived in Durango since 1996, and theorganic produce division has seen prodigious growth in recent years.“I think we have some real opportunities to grow our business,” saysWheeling of James Ranch. “We’re going to explore a number of differentareas and we may be branching out. Now that I won’t need to travel asmuch, I’ll be an active part.”Wheeling is also an active part of LPEA’s board and has brought to it hisyears of corporate experience in finance, management and negotiation.“It’s a well-run organization,” he says, noting that it is an “exciting” timein the electric utility industry. “There are going to be a lot of changes happeningthat we don’t know the full extent of yet. But the organization isbecoming much more dynamic as a result of that. It’s going to be a very,very interesting time in coming years.”photo: indiana reed– Indiana ReedLa Plata Electric Association | www.lpea.coop 9