Wolverine rides a good wave right now.  We provide value and competitive, reliable power for our member-owners.  We own competitive generating plants that run well, we built and maintain a strong and improving transmission network, our stable and competitive member rates allow us to invest in our future, and we have talented, caring employees.

When I look back over the past decade, I’m proud of how much you have gotten done.  Our accomplishments include adding nearly 900 MW of generation, constructing nearly 500 miles of new transmission line, and rebuilding over 50 distribution substations and transmission stations.  We built a new headquarters and embarked on a program to construct new service centers to improve efficiency, comfort, safety and response time for our linemen and technicians.  Wolverine grew its equity by over $100 million, established an A (stable) credit rating with Standard & Poor’s, and retired nearly $50 million in capital credits to our members.  We have doubled our revenue, and member sales have grown by 30%, in large part due to Midwest Energy choosing to join the Wolverine family.  Lastly, we lead Michigan in new renewable generation development, and we began construction of our first solar array this month.  Whew!

So what does this have to do with teamwork?  The dedication of our team of experienced and hard working employees made these accomplishments possible.  Wolverine cannot trust that what made us successful over the last ten years, will work for our future where we face unprecedented growth opportunities amidst growing business complexity.  We need to prepare agile teams that can adapt and carry on our mission in this changing world.

As a step towards achieving the next generation of objectives, today I announced the formation of three focused senior teams.  For more information on these senior teams, please watch the video above.