EVERETT — Steve Klein, general manager of the Snohomish County Public Utility District for the past five years, is the Snohomish County Business Journal’s 2011 Executive of the Year.
Chosen for his exceptional expertise in managing and directing the operations of the PUD, his successful
management style and his community involvement, Klein received his award during the May 4 meeting on “Perspectives of the Economy,” presented by Economic Alliance Snohomish County at the Lynnwood Convention Center.
Since coming to the Snohomish County PUD in 2006, he’s enhanced the PUD’s longtime leadership role in conservation programs and renewable energy resources even more.
While the PUD and other Northwest public utilities continue to depend primarily on hydropower from the region’s giant federal dams, increasing power demand and limited supplies of hydropower have challenged utilities to find new energy resources of their own.
With contracts for power from three wind turbine projects in Eastern Washington and Oregon, power produced from the air makes up 8 percent of the utility’s supply portfolio, one of the largest shares for any Northwest utility.
PUD also is completing construction of the region’s first new hydropower project in 30 years. Being developed on Young’s Creek in Snohomish County, it’s a run-of-the-river project that produces energy as the water flows through, eliminating the need for a reservoir that could affect wildlife habitat.
By the end of 2013, PUD hopes to install two underwater turbines in Admiralty Inlet in the first Northwest test of tidal energy production. In the Cascade foothills of eastern Snohomish County, PUD is continuing to drill test wells at a potential geothermal energy site.
The PUD’s Solar Express Project has already attracted more than 100 participants who have added solar energy generation to homes, business, schools and PUD’s headquarters.
Programs to develop those kinds of conservation projects at the PUD has attracted $31 million in grants, primarily from the U.S. Department of Energy, to offset the utility’s investments.
Being a visionary isn’t in Klein’s job description but it might as well be, since meeting customers’ current and future demands for electric power calls for a lot of future-think over and above meeting each day’s energy supply challenges.
Fortunately, analytical out-of-the-box thinking comes second nature to Klein. Coupled with a lifelong focus on setting goals, hard work and economizing, he brings essential human elements to a job that swirls around people, numbers and invisible electrons.
Born and raised in Tacoma, he grew up with parents who experienced the Great Depression and taught him the importance of hard work. As a teen, he delivered newspapers and honed yard-work skills, later working at a car wash, a furniture reupholstery shop, a sewage treatment plant and other places.
After attending Western Washington University, he earned his electrical engineering degree at the University of Washington, then got his first job with Boeing Computer Services in 1976. He’d majored in power engineering but also became a skilled software code developer. That’s when he turned down a suggestion that he might join a small startup software company called Microsoft.
“To me, it kind of sounded like a couple of college dropouts starting a business from their parents’ garage, so I opted to stay with Boeing,” Klein said. “I might have become one of those early Microsoft 100-million-dollar-plus millionaires, but in the end I am very happy with my life. No regrets.”
In 1978, he left computer work for engineering, wanting to accomplish more things, and joined Tacoma City Light’s engineering group.
“Unlike other engineering disciplines, electricity is an invisible commodity, therefore you have to become proficient in some very complex mathematics and be able to imagine electrons in your mind. Sounded like a good challenge to me,” he said with a smile.
He met that challenge well. By 1985, he became assistant power manager for operations, then moved through other positions until he became the utility’s superintendent in 1993. He held the top position until 2006 when “executive headhunters hired by Snohomish County PUD started talking to me about moving on,” he said.
When he’s not immersed in PUD and Northwest power grid issues, he loves spending time with his family, reading and taking long walks.
“My wife, Jomarie, and I attended the same high school but didn’t know each other then,” he said. “After a successful a career as a professional ballet dancer, she returned to the Northwest, I ran into her again and the relationship blossomed.”
Their son Andrew, 26, is an accountant and financial analyst, graduated from Seattle University and spent a year at La Sorbonne in Paris; Erika, 24, a professional ballet dancer from age 16 to 22, attends the University of Washington, pursuing a career in physical therapy; and Wisten, 20, a student at Tacoma Community College, is interested in working in the health care industry.
An exercise fanatic and home remodeler for most of his life, Klein admits to being “totally burned out on remodeling and my body is getting old and can’t take the impact of intense exercise anymore. I still enjoy an occasional run, lots of walking and a little light weightlifting routine.”
His reading time is focused on the real world, spurred by his “love to learn new things,” he said, “which is why I read nonfiction almost exclusively, including several newspapers, power industry, finance and science periodicals, the Web, etc. I would rather go to a place and experience my own stories than read about the experiences of fictional characters. That’s just me, probably the engineer in me.”
Klein serves on the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County board and EDC Executive Committee, and the board and executive committee of the Washington Clean Technology Alliance. He attributes his career successes as an executive to his management style, which he describes as “participatory.”
“I prefer to surround myself with a diversity of smart, creative and ethical people who work as a team to achieve the best solutions and the highest level of performance,” Klein said. “I do not micromanage and I provide a lot of leeway for other leaders in the organization to manage their departments.
“But I am also adamant about holding people accountable for ultimately achieving our goals and objectives. I also see my job as having the responsibility to remove obstacles and provide the necessary resources for people to be able to perform their jobs effectively.”
Being an effective manager has certainly been as important to Klein as being a visionary.
“The PUD has a number of nationally recognized programs that get a lot of media attention but on a day-to-day basis, the most important part of all of our jobs at the PUD comes down to keeping the lights on with the highest level of customer service and value,” he said. “The board, management team and employees are aligned together in their commitment to serving the customer and enhancing the value of the PUD to the benefit of the community,” he said.
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