Career Reflections
Mike Mernick is a Senior Vice President leading Market Development within ICF’s Commercial Energy Division. He has supported AESP extensively over the past two decades including serving on the Board of Directors for fourteen years and was past President of the AESP Northeast Chapter. He is a recipient of the prestigious BH Prasad Award, AESP’s top individual member honor.
John Hargrove is the CEO of the Association of Energy Service Professionals, a dynamic community of energy professionals dedicated to advancing the industry through professional development, networking and supporting a resilient, sustainable energy future. John is an often-invited industry speaker having spent the majority of his forty plus utility industry career years in a variety of progressively responsible management and executive roles in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries. His experience includes design and management of utility programs, performance contracting sales and management, and non-profit industry trade association management and oversight.
As John Hargrove prepares to retire from his role as President and CEO of the Association of Energy Service Professionals (AESP), ICF's Senior Vice President of Market Development Mike Mernick sat down with him to reflect on his career, and the broad changes occurring within the industry that could impact AESP's membership over the next decade.
The conversation covered the nearly four decades of John's career, touching on new utility business models, regulatory reform, the changing role of the utility customer, and everything in between.
Mike Mernick: I'm leading a fireside chat session at AESP's thirtieth National Conference in February on what it takes to build a successful career in today's energy industry. How did you get started in the industry?
John Hargrove: I got my start in the energy efficiency industry in 1982 when I started doing California Residential Conservation Service energy audits. But I decided to make energy efficiency my career one day in 1984 while I was in the crawl space under the house of a nice, little old lady who had a really high bill.