Last Tuesday night, I hosted a dinner at Wolverine for a very special group of leaders. I invited each Wolverine Board Chairman dating from 1995 to the present. In addition, I invited Tom Stevenson (CEO from 1995-2006), Walley Garcia (long-time CFO) and Pete Chase (long-time leader of our Merchant Operations and Energy Control Center groups). Each of these special guests attended, along with a few on the senior team that used to work directly for Tom Stevenson.

The evening held a simple purpose — to say thank you. Each of these men made a unique contribution to the success that Wolverine enjoys today. Wolverine’s future hung in the balance back in 1995 when the Board hired Stevenson to fix Wolverine. Wolverine’s rates were much higher than our competition, our service reliability was the worst in the Michigan, and our members wanted to terminate their relationship with us.

I remain amazed by what they accomplished. They fixed bad power deals, bad debt deals, and bad member relationships. With vision, hard work, toughness, courage and a little luck, they fundamentally changed our foundation and our culture. It is on this solid foundation that we continued to grow Wolverine over the past decade.

These Chairman were honored individually: Carl Morton, Tom VanPelt, Terry Lautner, Bob Thurow, Allan Bruder, Fred Vermeersch, Dale Farrier and Richard Walsworth. Craig Borr and I discussed each of their unique contributions and present Chairman Deneweth spoke about his honor to hold their seat.

I offered a 1995-2015 business comparison to illustrate how far we’ve come. After Craig and I honored each of our special guests, we had a quiet dinner and exchanged stories from those tumultuous early years. We will permanently honor their remarkable contributions by planting a special grove of trees located in the parking lot area of our former headquarters. I hope it becomes a place where you can reflect on the power of commitment and individual contribution to make a family better. The best way you can honor these men is to provide quality and commitment in your personal work to continue the legacy they let us enjoy.