Leadership Lyceum Podcast: A Conversation with Paul Bonavia
Tom Linquist is a partner at a leading global executive search firm. He is an expert on executive assessment and leadership development, and can be reached at Linquist@LeadershipLyceum.com.
The Illinois General Assembly passed a resolution designating April 1 as “Cheap Trick Day” in Illinois back in 2007. Last month I sat down with Paul Bonavia, who in his younger days was in bands with members who would go on to form Cheap Trick.
Paul’s rock and roll avocation gave way to his vocation as CEO of an investor-owned utility. Paul is better known today as the retired Chairman and CEO of UNS Energy (Tucson Electric Power). The company was sold to Fortis in August 2014.
We’ll explore the triggers and interconnected events that led to remarkable levels of consolidation in our industry.
Paul joined UNS in 2009, and in August of 2014 closed on the sale of UNS to Fortis. Fortis, Canada’s largest investor-owned gas and electric utility holding company, has been active and acquisitive. It was formed in 1987 with about three hundred ninety million dollars in assets, and it’s grown to over forty-seven billion today.
Fortis acquired three publicly-traded U.S. companies over the last several years. In June 2013, Fortis acquired Central Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York for 1.5 billion. In August 2014, the company acquired UNS for 4.3 billion. Tucson Electric Power, the UNS utility, serves four hundred seventeen thousand customers in the greater metropolitan Tucson area. In October 2016, Fortis purchased ITC, a Novi, Michigan-based, publicly-traded transmission operator and developer, for 11.3 billion.