Leadership Lyceum’s Podcast Summary
Thomas Linquist is founder of The Leadership Lyceum and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting. He focuses on senior-level search assignments, including CEO and board of director roles within the power, utility and infrastructure sectors. See the complete body of leadership podcasts, interviews, and articles at www.LeadershipLyceum.com.
Mayo Schmidt was appointed President and CEO of Hydro One in 2015. Prior to joining Hydro One, he was President and CEO of Viterra, Inc., a globally integrated agriculture export firm headquartered in Canada with operations in North America, Australia, New Zealand, China and a supply chain to fifty countries.
I joined Mayo Schmidt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hydro One, at his office in Toronto in January 2018 for this discussion.
These are heady, exhilarating times for Hydro One, Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution company with 1.3 million customers. Mayo was appointed President and CEO of Hydro One in August of 2015.
He is unique among utility CEOs, hailing from the food and agriculture industry. Prior to joining Hydro One he was President and CEO of Viterra, Inc., a globally integrated agriculture export firm headquartered in Canada with operations in North America, Australia, New Zealand, China and a supply chain to fifty countries. Mayo also holds the distinction of having been drafted by the Miami Dolphins out of university.
In 1999, sixteen years before Mayo joined the company, the organization was called Ontario Hydro. The decision was made by the provincial government to separate the company into individual organizations, the largest of which were the generation of electricity (Ontario Power Generation) and the transmission & distribution of it (Hydro One).
In a recent issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly, we featured an interview with Jeff Lyash, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ontario Power Generation.