Developing Skilled Leaders
Energy utilities are responsible for providing essential services to meet their customers’ needs. They must continue to deliver reliable energy services at affordable rates while also accommodating rapidly growing uses of electricity and dramatically reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Successfully achieving these ongoing and new requirements will require strong, effective leadership and problem-solving abilities at utilities and at other energy organizations. The Willamette Utility Management Certificate Program helps prepare high-potential individuals to meet these challenges.
UMC Program Details
- Utility Management Certificate Program Purpose and Deliverables
This utilities management training program is designed to achieve the following outcomes:
- Help participants develop well-rounded knowledge of energy utilities system functions, operations and processes
- Promote shared understanding of the energy utilities industry and important issues based on relevant, balanced and objective information
- Provide insights and skills that enable participants to effectively manage ongoing changes in the industry and at their organization
- Educational Approach
The 2024 UMC program will be an intensive, 10-day management training. Eight days of in-person class sessions will be held at Willamette's new Executive Development Center in Portland, Oregon. Two days of instruction will be held via online webinars.
Classes will be conducted by top-level instructors who are subject matter experts with significant experience in their fields. From industry-leading practitioners to professional trainers, each instructor has recognized expertise in their given topic. Guest speakers will also be invited to engage with the class on topics of interest.
In addition to daily classroom instruction, discussions and exercises, students will work together in small teams throughout the course. Each team will explore and assess a key planning topic, prepare a written report and deliver a final presentation that simulates interaction with an organization’s decision makers.
- 2024 Curriculum and Daily Schedule
The curriculum for the 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program will address multiple topics, including how they integrate with each other and within the overall energy utility industry. Topics will include:
- Opening day symposium on driving forces of decarbonization, electrification, reliability and affordability; implications and outlook for the industry
- Effective presentations to decision-makers and stakeholders
- Energy resources and markets in transition
- Energy utilities industry strategy: thinking, planning and implementing
- Utility oversight, governance and decision-making
- Utility rate development and implementation
- Energy utility finances
- Negotiations and stakeholder engagement
- Mock utility Commission/Board hearing on policy implementation
- Leadership and change-management
- Customer engagement
- Final project: team present planning reports, followed by review and discussion with course instructors
- 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program Participants
The curriculum for the 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program will address multiple topics, including how they integrate with each other and within the overall energy utility industry. Topics will include:
- Opening day symposium on driving forces of decarbonization, electrification, reliability and affordability; implications and outlook for the industry
- Effective presentations to decision-makers and stakeholders
- Energy resources and markets in transition
- Energy utilities industry strategy: thinking, planning and implementing
- Utility oversight, governance and decision-making
- Utility rate development and implementation
- Energy utility finances
- Negotiations and stakeholder engagement
- Mock utility Commission/Board hearing on policy implementation
- Leadership and change-management
- Customer engagement
- Final project: team present planning reports, followed by review and discussion with course instructors
- Grading and Completion Certificates
Students will be expected to attend eight hours of in-class sessions daily. Three graded assignments, a final team project and course participation evaluations all contribute to the final grade.
Students who successfully complete the 10-day course will receive a certificate of Utility Management Certificate Program completion from Willamette’s MBA Program. Students may also be eligible for graduate academic credit.
- Tuition
Tuition for the Fall 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program is $6,275 per person or $5,750 per person for an organization sending four or more employees. The tuition includes registration fees, course materials, breakfast and lunch, and daily snacks.
- Contacts
We are pleased to present the 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program and are looking forward to engaging with this year’s students. If you or your organization are interested in participating, please contact us!
Charlie Black Director, Utility Management Certificate Program
Kennedy Hawkins Director, Executive Development Center