Part 1 of 2: “Utility Mergers & Acquisitions: Reflections from The Room Where It Happened”

Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor

Part 1 of 2: “Utility Mergers & Acquisitions: Reflections from The Room Where It Happened” Interview with McKinsey & Company Emeritus, Dr. Les Silverman, former Lead Independent Director of Pepco and Independent Director of Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG); Mr. Robert (Bob) Skaggs, former CEO of NiSource and then CEO of CPG; and Mr. Joseph (Joe) Rigby, former Chief Executive Officer of Pepco.

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part novel interview with two CEO’s and a common board member between them.

As a board member for both companies, Les Silverman was at the vertex of notable M&A transactions that took place under the leadership of each of these CEOs over the last two years. At NiSource, Bob Skaggs presided over the separation of the gas storage and transmission assets from the regulated utility. Bob led CPG’s spinoff from NiSource into a standalone publicly traded company in July 2015, and the subsequent sale of CPG to TransCanada one year later. At Pepco, Joe Rigby led the sale of Pepco to Exelon. The NiSource - CPG transaction unfolded in a relatively smooth and speedy manner, while the Pepco acquisition could only be described as epic and protracted.

My fabulous foursome gathered in the Pepco offices in Washington in one of the rooms where it happened several months after the completion of their transactions to reflect on the deliberations and perspectives of the executives and one of the non-executive directors who made it all happen.

Informative and Helpful Links

From Utility Dive: Gavin Bade’s “A brief history of the Exelon-Pepco merger saga” http://www.utilitydive.com/news/updated-a-brief-history-of-the-exelon-pepco-merger-saga/414573/

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Your host Thomas B. Linquist is a Partner at a leading global executive search firm. Over his 15 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients. This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 25-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago. He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development. Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.

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