Virginia SCC: Deputy Directors for Public Utility Regulation

Deck: 

Deputy Directors

Fortnightly Magazine - June 2021
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PUF was delighted at the opportunity to travel to Richmond virtually to visit the home of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The Commission is a unique regulatory body with authority over utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, retail franchising, railroads, and well, a long laundry list. No wonder the Commission employs over six-hundred Staff.
 

PUF's Lori Burkhart: How did your backgrounds lead you all to the Commission?

Greg Abbott: I'm from Richmond and have both a bachelor's and a master's degree in economics from VCU. When I was working on my graduate degree, I took a job at a local consulting firm called Technical Associates.

The firm still comes in as expert witnesses before this Commission, so that's how I got introduced to utility regulation. Once I graduated, I took a job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I eventually came back to Richmond and had connections at Technical Associates.

One of them was a deputy director in our Division of Public Utility Communications, which has now been absorbed into our division. At the time there was a separate division and our Chief Hearing Examiner also worked at the same firm, so that's how I got back into this business. That was in 1998, and I have been with the Commission ever since.

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