Unique Conversations
Mark Vannoy is Chair of the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Steve Mitnick is Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly and President of Lines Up, Inc.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: How did you become Chair of the Commission?
Chair Vannoy: I was working in the private sector as a civil engineering consultant in Maine and was very happy with the work I was doing.
The consulting company I worked for used a program of the Maine Development Foundation, called Leadership Maine. Leadership Maine is the premier leadership program in Maine and attracts professionals from all across the state. One of the people that I met there was the governor's general counsel.
It was the general counsel that recruited me. Initially I said, I'm happy with the job I'm in. I'm not interested. I was asked to please send a resume which I did. I got a call in the Atlanta airport saying, the governor wants to meet with you to interview for the commissioner job.
I met with the governor and his team quickly made the decision to nominate me and proceed with the confirmation process.