Q&A with Marcy Reed, National Grid
Photo/Rick Saia
MARCY REED, President, National Grid
In late January, Waltham-based electric and gas utility National Grid promoted Marcy L. Reed to be its top executive in Massachusetts after she spent more than 20 years in finance, merger integration and corporate affairs roles. She also spent three years as head of investor relations. Here, she addresses organizational changes at National Grid and the company’s smart grid pilot program planned for Worcester County.
You work in an era when hardly anyone stays at a company for 20 years. What drew you to National Grid and what is it that keeps you with the company?
I was in public accounting. A predecessor company (to National Grid), Mass. Electric, was a client of Coopers & Lybrand (now part of Pricewaterhouse Coopers), where I worked. I was on that account and I made some connections with folks at the company. I found the company interesting and they had an opening at a time I was a little unhappy with my job.
What keeps me here are the plethora of opportunities and jobs that I’ve held in the company … I can see all that kind of coming together and it offers me the opportunity to make a difference on a broad spectrum and think more strategically about what we’re doing as a company.
You’ve been on the job as president a little more than six months and it came amid a major restructuring of the company. Have things settled down?
Not quite yet. We’re almost there. We’ll be announcing our final changes the week after Labor Day. But we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and certainly the model that we’ve put into place has been working now since April. My early observation is it’s a fantastic step forward.
At the time of your appointment, you were the company’s senior vice president for public affairs. And you took the job after National Grid faced a lot of criticism, notably over the backing of Cape Wind and anger over the company’s response to the snowstorm at the end of last year that left thousands without power for more than a day. How did that public affairs role help prepare you for that?
The public affairs role was a great opportunity in interfacing with real life. I continue to be heavily involved on legislative and regulatory matters. And any controversial topic that comes up in the court of public opinion you tend to get involved with within the public affairs group and certainly in this job as well. There’s always a case to be made for whatever your point of view is. As long as you can have a civilized dialogue, then you could have a productive conversation and move topics forward.
Earlier this year, National Grid withdrew its smart grid pilot program for Worcester County in favor of a new one it says it will submit by December. Is that still in the works, and will the company meet that deadline?
Yes. We continue to be completely committed to smart grid implementation and, more broadly, the Massachusetts Green Communities Act. However, since we developed the filing a couple of big things happened: one, technology has marched along and we were committed to a prior generation (of technology). And two, costs were coming down. So we wanted to pull the filing…in an effort to upgrade both of those points. The other thing is that we want to take some time to get input from the customer base (including through an upcoming summit Sept. 19 and 20 at the DCU Center), which we had done minimally before, in a more comprehensive manner.
What’s the toughest leadership lesson you’ve had to learn?
Not everybody’s the same and I think I’ve learned some fantastic lessons from coworkers who have different styles and opinions than I do and who teach me how to think differently (and) more broadly. And I think I was one of those kids who grew up thinking I knew everything. When I got into the workplace working with a bunch of smart people, I realized that there are lots of ways to skin a cat, and it takes a full spectrum of people to be successful.
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In a Boston Globe story earlier this year after the National Grid reorganization, you said the company lost its focus in the controversies that preceded your promotion. A lot of people find such candor refreshing in such a large company. Do you think it's a good thing for a company to admit, "Hey! We messed up!"?
It certainly is my view. We're all human. No person is perfect; no company is perfect. It's just the way I am. The company knows me very well; they knew the person they were putting in this job. And they know that I'm going to say what's on my mind. I don't do it to earn favor or earn any points. It was just how my parents brought me up. If that brings up controversy, then I'm happy to deal with it. And I expect the same out of the folks I work with.
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