Using culture to drive change

With a changing climate, rapidly advancing technology and evolving customer needs, the energy industry is facing many present challenges requiring action. Duquesne Light Company (DLC), located in south-western Pennsylvania, is not immune to this progressing landscape.

DLC has provided safe and reliable electric service for more than 100 years, but the company now finds itself facing a critical moment as it leads its region’s transition to a clean energy future. While the road ahead will be long and face unique challenges, President and CEO Kevin Walker is using company culture to successfully drive his vision forward.

Walker has been at the helm of DLC since 2021. The company serves more than 600,000 customers in its service territory, including the city of Pittsburgh. A 30-year veteran of the utility industry, Walker is no stranger to the many changes the sector is facing as the 21st century marches on.

“The first year was just setting the stage and defining the basics – the mission, the vision, the values, the core foundation of the company.”

“I’ve just reached the milestone three year mark as President and CEO,” Walker tells The CEO Magazine. “Each one of those years we’ve been purposeful and intentional about the transformation we’re going through.”

That transformation, a nearly US$2 billion infrastructure upgrade, is taking DLC from traditional energy provider to trusted energy partner as the Pittsburgh region transitions to a clean energy future for all. The switch to renewables is a global happening, but at ground level it requires a significant amount of work.

“We needed to do a lot of foundational work in order to continue on this journey to meet the needs of our customers, our regulators, our ownership group and our region, all of whom rely on DLC for their success,” Walker says.

“The first year was just setting the stage and defining the basics – the mission, the vision, the values, the core foundation of the company. We had a lot of that in place, but they weren’t living, guiding principles for the company. They weren’t there guiding us every day.”

Leaning into change

Walker saw a need for that to change in order to drive the kind of future he envisioned for the company.

“We re-established those basics so that our people could use them as living documents,” he says. “The pace accelerated quite quickly as a result.”

A combat veteran, Walker understood that commitment and structure were going to serve DLC well as the transformation continued. “The second year was much more about deepening the understanding of the new initiatives we launched,” he says.

“We integrated our learnings deeper into the organization. Unless there’d been some kind of crisis we had to respond to, I was committed to focusing on the culture and the people that bring the strategy and vision to life for all our stakeholders.”

“Rather than just telling our team how things would go, we taught them how things will look under the new mission, how they could increase their capability to deliver and why it’s all so important to our communities.”

The third year became a time of learning in order to place the DLC team in the best position to start making good on the considerable promise held by the company’s renewed vision.

“Rather than just telling our team how things would go, we taught them how things will look under the new mission, how they could increase their capability to deliver and why it’s all so important to our communities,” he says.

“If the first few years were spent getting into the headspace, the third year was really about leaning into the foundation we have laid to achieve our mission. This is what I call the heart space.”

As the fourth year of his time as President and CEO rolls on, Walker says he’s excited to see DLC’s transformative work bear fruit.

“I never think we’re done and now we can stop focusing on it,” he says. “We have to care and feed it and make sure we’re flexible enough to be responsive to further changes.”

A united purpose

Safety, integrity, dependability, equity and community focus are critical values for an energy company. Walker says these aren’t simply a part of DLC’s DNA – they form a compelling purpose for the business and its people.

“If you say your purpose is to make money for your investors, that’s not going to excite or motivate anybody,” he says.

“As an industry and as a business, we have new expectations and new challenges placed on us all the time, and we need to continue to grow to meet those challenges. Our performance must improve along that journey. We’re going to have to be smarter in connecting distributed energy resources to our grid, in investing in that grid and in integrating cutting-edge technology.”

Such a compelling purpose gives a company and its team consistency and a highly coveted true north. “You’re motivated to go above and beyond because you’re emotionally connected to what it is you’re trying to do.”

“In a climate of mistrust, the folks who have the most trust are going to win.”

Walker’s vivid experiences working with Con Edison during the September 11 attacks keep the power of purpose in constant perspective for him.

“Think about the chaos of trying to put a city back together. There was no playbook for that,” he says.

“Eventually we rose to our purpose: to show the world New York wasn’t down and out. It was a powerfully compelling purpose around the world. If you have a crisis and there’s no purpose, it’s harder to get through.”

Crises seem to roll around more often these days, but Walker is ready for them.

“I’ve been in the industry 33 years, and this is the most fascinating, impactful and consequential time since electricity was invented. We believe power should be beneficial. It has to be cleaner, affordable and more efficient,” he says.

“We have to be serious about creating a path for prosperity for everyone, and if people are interested in hearing about what we’re doing in our region, I’m happy to share the lessons we have learned.

“And in a climate of mistrust, the folks who have the most trust are going to win.”