Within the vibrant and historic metropolis of San Antonio, one man’s journey from humble beginnings
to a place of profound affect serves as a beacon of inspiration and dedication. Rudy
D. Garza, president and CEO at CPS Power, stands on the intersection of custom and
transformation within the power sector. Raised within the industrial coronary heart of Corpus Christi, Texas,
Rudy’s story is deeply interwoven with the values of laborious work, group dedication,
and an unwavering pursuit of innovation.
Rudy’s ascent to the management of the biggest municipally owned electrical and pure gasoline
utility in america is greater than a story {of professional} achievement; it’s a narrative
rooted in private progress, group impression, and a imaginative and prescient for the long run that balances
financial viability with environmental stewardship. As CPS Power faces the challenges
and alternatives of a quickly evolving power panorama, Rudy’s management is
characterised by a forward-thinking strategy that honors the previous whereas boldly stepping
into the long run.
His dedication to his group and heritage is palpable, drawing on the teachings
realized from his household’s legacy within the bustling refinery cities of South Texas. The values
instilled by his close-knit household have formed Rudy’s strategy to each life and management.
These early experiences cultivated a way of accountability and a need to contribute to
the higher good, driving Rudy to pursue a profession that aligns private values with
skilled aims.
On this candid dialog with Robert Rapier and Kym Bolado, Rudy opens up about his
journey, sharing insights into his private {and professional} milestones, his imaginative and prescient for CPS
Power, and his deep-rooted connection to the communities he serves. Via his story,
we discover the complexities of main a significant utility firm in immediately’s dynamic power
setting and the non-public philosophies that information him in navigating these challenges.
Robert Rapier: Rudy, you grew up in Corpus Christi, and your grandfather labored within the
refineries. Did that affect your curiosity within the power sector?
Rudy Garza: Completely. Rising up inside about two miles of refinery row in Corpus
Christi, that’s all I knew. My grandfather labored for American Smelting (ASARCO), which is
a zinc smelter in Corpus Christi, a couple of block away from my elementary college, St.
Theresa. My grandfather was a laborer and finally turned a foreman at ASARCO. He
would at all times say I wanted to enter engineering as a result of all of the bosses on the plant have been
engineers. After I began to consider what I wished to do education-wise, engineering
caught in my head. I used to be good in math and science, and it made sense. However completely, the
refinery enterprise and my publicity to it due to my granddad had quite a bit to do with my
profession trajectory.
Robert Rapier: What are a few of your reminiscences from dwelling close to the ship channel, and
how did that setting form your perspective on power and the business?
Rudy Garza: The Corpus Christi financial system is pushed by the roles alongside the ship channel
hall. I rode bikes up and down River Highway, the place all these refineries are, and I
practiced baseball at a number of the parks in and round that space. For me, that’s how my
grandfather put meals on our desk. I at all times appreciated the roles and the financial exercise
that it created. We had loads of pals whose dad and mom labored on the refineries, and I’ve
family and friends to this present day that work there. It was very a lot part of who I used to be, and
we’ve just lately bought two plant websites down in Corpus Christi. So, the truth that we personal
an influence plant inside line of sight of the neighborhood I grew up in is cool.
Robert Rapier: I do know with me, no one in my household ever anticipated me to go to varsity.
No person in my household had ever been to varsity. What was it like for you rising up, or was
that one thing that was anticipated?
Rudy Garza: My grandparents raised me. I grew up like loads of Hispanic children in a multi-
generational family. My grandmother completed on the prime of her class at La Jolla HighSchool, and he or she anticipated each considered one of her grandchildren to graduate from faculty. All
eleven of my grandparents’ grandchildren obtained levels, together with me. So, whereas I didn’t develop up with a ton of college-educated folks round me, it was an expectation that everyone would earn a level, and I’m pleased with that. My grandmother was a tremendous girl.
Robert Rapier: That’s unbelievable. Are you able to inform me about that? Inform me about your journey
by way of the College of Texas and the College of North Texas and what motivated you
to pursue the levels that you just pursued.
Rudy Garza: I’ve at all times been drawn to the College of Texas (UT). That’s the school I
grew up loving. I had no connection to UT essentially, however, like most Texas children, you
often align round Texas or Texas A&M. I had an aunt who was pushing me laborious to
contemplate A&M and I had an uncle in California who took me on excursions of all of the California
colleges. I utilized and ended up moving into Stanford. However I finally selected Texas
as a result of they gave me a scholarship that lined my education. I used to be at all times a UT man. It’s an enormous a part of who I’m. I met with a tutorial advisor once I obtained to UT and requested what essentially the most troublesome engineering program you would get into was, and it was Electrical Engineering. So, I began there and figured I may need to switch to a unique engineering program if it was too laborious. However I used to be capable of make it. I’m an lively
Longhorn alumnus and I’ve served on their advisory board for the School of Engineering.
Robert Rapier: How did your academic background put together you for the challenges you
face immediately?
Rudy Garza: You learn the way electrical energy works. You don’t study what it’s essential to find out about
the job that you just’re doing till you get into it and the corporate you’re employed for teaches you that. That’s common within the power business. After my freshman 12 months in faculty, I joined the Intern Inroads Internship Program for minority college students and began working for TXU within the Dallas-Fort Price space.
In order that’s how I obtained into the enterprise. It was by way of an internship. Nevertheless, faculty
teaches you the self-discipline it’s essential to be a lifetime learner. To this present day, I’m nonetheless studying
issues to be the most effective CEO I might be. There’s no rule guide or coaching program for being a
CEO. You must know the enterprise and it’s essential to work out what you don’t know and
rent folks higher and smarter than you to cowl the areas that you just’re not as sturdy in, and you set all of it collectively.
I obtained a fantastic basis at UT for a broad engineering mindset, after which TXU taught
me what I wanted to know concerning the utility enterprise. That basis is what obtained me to
the place I’m immediately.
Robert Rapier: Did you begin as an engineer or did you go straight into the enterprise facet?
Rudy Garza: The best way TXU arrange their internship program is that they moved me across the
enterprise. I interned in a customer support position for one summer time, had an engineering position for
a few summers, and so they moved me again to a customer support position my final
summer time. I began my profession off in a customer support setting after which transitioned
to an engineering position for 2 or three years. I didn’t spend loads of time within the engineering
self-discipline as soon as I obtained out of college.
My mentors discovered early that I used to be good with folks, and so they began placing me in
roles the place I may make the most of that talent set. However the time I did spend in engineering
gave me the basics I wanted to grasp the enterprise. And once more, there are some things it’s essential to should be able to being a CEO. You must be technically sound. You do not need to be an knowledgeable, however you must perceive the fundamentals of the enterprise. You must perceive how the enterprise makes cash and you must perceive the coverage facet of the enterprise.
I completed on the prime of my MBA class on the College of North Texas (UNT). The enterprise
basis of management and administration are additionally essential as a result of you must have a
good administration construction in place to be a very good chief. When you think about all of it, I feel I
have loads of well-rounded expertise and academic background that made this
alternative doable for me.
Robert Rapier: You’re the first Hispanic chief of CPS Power. What does that imply to
you personally and professionally?
Rudy Garza: I’m proud to be the primary to do something, not lots of people get that
alternative. And definitely, being the primary Hispanic chief at CPS Power is an honor that’s
so humbling. It additionally signifies that I must do a very good job.
In an setting the place any person like me has by no means been given this chance, it takes
Board Members who care about range and are keen to offer any person a shot. Our
Board of Trustee members, Dr. Willis Mackey, Janie Martinez Gonzalez, and San Antonio
Mayor Nirenberg, took an opportunity on me. I’ve accomplished every little thing I can to benefit from this
alternative and to make the group proud. That’s what drives me.
After I exit to varsities or to go to aged of us in the neighborhood, they react to me in a approach that makes me really feel proud. I didn’t suppose it was doable for me to be a CEO rising up
as a result of I by no means noticed a CEO who regarded like me. That’s why it’s essential. On the finish of the
day, it’s not about me. It’s about what my alternative means for folks of coloration and children
who’re making an attempt to aspire to do nice issues. Now, at the least, they’ve a job mannequin to say,
“Hey, any person’s gotten there.”
Robert Rapier: In my expertise, each CEO who is available in desires to place their stamp on the job. What are a number of the initiatives you applied at CPS Power? How did you make that job yours?
Rudy Garza: The primary initiative was stabilizing ourselves financially. We have been in a tricky
spot after Winter Storm Uri, and that’s how this chance happened for me. We had
belief points with the group, and I instantly started working stabilizing the group
by getting a charge improve handed by way of our Board and Metropolis Council. As soon as we obtained
stabilized in that regard, we put a technique collectively.
Imaginative and prescient 2027, our strategic plan, is a method for us to prioritize billions of {dollars}’ price of
wanted investments to get us from the place we’ve got been to the place we have to be. That
means further gasoline provide infrastructure, over a billion {dollars} of transmission work, the
retirement of outdated gasoline energy crops and constructing new energy crops to exchange them. And I
must handle an power transition that will get us from a traditional-style utility into the
future.
After getting a very good technique, then it’s as much as you to execute, and that’s the place we’re proper now. We’re executing our Imaginative and prescient 2027 technique forward of schedule, and I’m pleased with my group and the group for getting behind us.
Robert Rapier: One of many issues I do is write Utility Forecaster for Investing Day by day. A
dominant theme just lately is the expansion of AI information facilities and the way that’s going to have an effect on
energy demand. Is that one thing you see in your space and is that one thing you’re
planning for?
Rudy Garza: Completely. We’ve got roughly ten information facilities in San Antonio proper now and
one other ten or twelve ready within the wings. My job is to supply them service, however these
bigger hundreds are extra complicated. We’re going to should construct transmission in loads of
cases to have the ability to serve these clients which can embody the Public Utility
Fee of Texas (PUC) and a state regulatory course of that takes three to 5 years.
There are in all probability some clients which can be pissed off due to the time horizon that it
will take to get them the service they’re on the lookout for.
We will’t construct transmission quick sufficient to get them serviced instantly. However I really feel good
that we are going to determine it out.
Robert Rapier: You talked quite a bit concerning the challenges going forward right here. How will the
adoption of renewables and rising sustainability play into all that? It looks like that’s
yet one more complication in your job with making an attempt to combine all that into the grid.
Rudy Garza: I don’t subscribe to the notion that renewables are dangerous and gasoline is nice. The
solely approach you’re going to serve load progress proper now’s with renewables. San Antonio is
primary in photo voltaic, we’re quantity two in wind within the state of Texas, and we’re the fourth
largest generator in ERCOT. We’ve got nuclear and coal energy as effectively. So, we’ve discovered
a strategy to stability all of it efficiently, as has the state.
We’re getting photo voltaic constructed and it’s getting constructed shortly and we’ll be constructing a gigawatt price
of battery storage over the subsequent 4 or 5 years. You must have all out there sources
whenever you’re in a constrained setting. Do we’d like pure gasoline mills? Completely.
We’ve got to construct extra of that, too. Whenever you’re in a rising state, it’s essential to have all of it. You don’t have the posh of selecting and selecting what kind of useful resource you will get. It’s essential to have as many sources as you will get on the system.
Robert Rapier: Shifting gears a bit bit, what recommendation would you give to younger
professionals, particularly these from underrepresented communities trying to enter the
power business?
Rudy Garza: I don’t suppose there’s a greater time to be within the power business. I’ve employed 1,200 new staff during the last three years, which is a 3rd of my worker base. I’ve 40% of my staff who’re eligible to retire over the subsequent 5 years. That’s 70% to 75% of my worker base that may flip over in an eight to ten-year interval. Which means there’s going to be a ton of alternative for folks popping out of college who’re on the lookout for a profession.
I feel that the utility sector is a superb place for younger of us or for these in search of a change in business. I at all times inform my new staff, it’s not rocket science. You must present as much as
work each day with a very good angle and deal with folks proper. You must be inquisitive and
work out what sort of chief you’re going to be — whether or not you’re a person contributor
otherwise you’re a frontrunner of individuals, both approach, it takes management. There are some fundamentals
that it’s essential to get proper, and we’ll do the remainder.
All of it results in the chance that any person may find yourself in my seat sometime who’s not
even pondering they might be a CEO. I actually didn’t even take into consideration the chance that I might be a CEO till about eight years in the past, when Doyle Beneby, considered one of my former CEOs,
put the concept in my head that I used to be succesful.
Robert Rapier: The place have been you at that time in your profession?
Rudy Garza: At that time in my profession, I used to be vice chairman of exterior relations at CPS
Power.
Robert Rapier: Okay, so that you have been getting near the highest.
Rudy Garza: I used to be shut. However once more, no one had ever put that thought in my head. No person had ever had a mentoring dialog with me and mentioned, “Hey, Rudy, you are able to do this, you recognize?” And the minute he opened that door for me, my dream modified. My idea of what I believed was doable grew exponentially. I at all times thought I’d have to depart CPS Power and go be a CEO of a smaller utility, perhaps a co-op, after which perhaps I may come again. However the good Lord blessed me with this chance. I used to be the correct man on the proper time. The group wanted my specific talent set primarily based on the place it was within the second. Having any person let you know it’s doable, I can’t underscore how important that was for me.
Robert Rapier: How does CPS Power make sure you meet the wants and expectations of your clients and the group? And what position do you play within the financial growth of the group?
Rudy Garza: I’ll take the second query first. Nothing occurs in San Antonio with out
CPS Power. You may’t construct a house or begin a enterprise with out reaching out to us first.
Nothing occurs with out the utilities being the most effective they are often. Financial growth
doesn’t occur with out a good provide of power and water. The job Robert Puente does at
San Antonio Water System (SAWS) is equally essential to financial growth in San
Antonio. You must have water and you must have power.
The best way that we stay profitable, which is what I centered on once I turned CEO, is you
should be keen to interact your clients, have interaction your group, and take heed to what
they need. I do know precisely what my clients need as a result of I’m out in the neighborhood
each day speaking concerning the job that we’re doing. They need their electrical and gasoline service to be dependable, and so they need it to be inexpensive, after which they need us to be modern and sustainable. I would like to cut back carbon, however I can’t try this on the expense of reliability or
affordability. I must stability and obtain these priorities in a time horizon that enables us
to proceed to fulfill the expansion of the group.
For a publicly owned utility like us — the biggest mixed electrical and pure gasoline utility in
america — the place the rubber meets the highway is guaranteeing that we’re at all times listening to our clients’ expectations. I would like my clients to be ok with the job we’re doing. The explanation we exist is to be the most effective electrical and gasoline utility we might be for San Antonio.
That’s what drives me. I would like my clients to look me within the eye and say, “Rudy, I feel
you’re doing a very good job.” That’s what’s essential to me.
Robert Rapier: What traits do you foresee having essentially the most important impression on the
power business over the subsequent decade? And the way are community-owned utilities evolving in
response to those traits?
Rudy Garza: The utility business isn’t tremendous modern by nature. Thomas Edison may
come again and nonetheless acknowledge the system he invented. We’ve got to accomplice with
organizations which can be pushing innovation, just like the Electrical Energy Analysis Institute. EPRI
is considering the long run and the way we evolve our system. However you do should make some
investments proper now by selecting applied sciences that you just suppose have an opportunity of attending to
the size that we’d like them to be. For an enormous utility like CPS Power, one megawatt is just not
going to make a distinction. I would like expertise that’s going to offer me 100 or 1,000 MW.
The one approach modern expertise goes to get the place we’d like it to is to really make investments
in it. I feel we’re doing a very good job of that. We picked companions like Southwest Analysis
Institute (SwRI) and the College of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). They’re doing analysis
for us that I feel will make a few of these new applied sciences get us to the long run sooner
quite than later.
However once more, whenever you’re in a transition state, you both let change occur to you otherwise you
make it occur. At CPS Power, we’re going to make the long run occur. There’s little question
about it. We’re going to be proactive, we’re going to speculate thoughtfully, however in a significant approach, and we’re going to create the long run that our clients demand of us.
Robert Rapier: Who or what has been essentially the most important affect in your management
type, and the way has that formed your strategy?
Rudy Garza: I simply had this dialog with an worker. I’ve at all times been good at
creating mentoring relationships with leaders on the highest ranges. And each chief has
issues about them that you just need to emulate and doubtless some issues that you just don’t need
to emulate. And that’s okay. I’ve been capable of take sure parts of each considered one of my
chief’s management types and create my very own management accountability profile. For me, I
need to be a humble chief. I don’t ever need it to be about me. I would like it to be concerning the
people who I’m accountable for. I need to be approachable.
I need to really feel like my position is not any kind of essential than some other position in our firm. I would like our group to really feel like they’ll get to me in the event that they want me. And all of that has
come by way of completely different leaders that I’ve been uncovered to all through my profession which have taught me what good management seems to be like. Leaders like Doyle Beneby, Paula Gold-
Williams, and former Mayor Joe Adame down in Corpus Christi who I labored with once I was on the Metropolis of Corpus Christi. Mayor Adame is likely one of the humblest Christian males I’ve
ever recognized and loads of who he’s as a servant chief, is what I’ve tried to be.
Leaders I labored with on the state capitol, like Curt Seidlits, who was a former state affairs
chairman and was my boss once I was at TXU. He taught me the best way to have a folks
technique. In the event you’re paying consideration and also you’re asking the correct questions, your journey
by way of your profession must be a end result of all these mentors who’ve had a hand in
making you who you might be. I prefer to suppose that the chief that I’m immediately is as a result of I paid
consideration to the recommendation all these folks have given me all through my profession.
Robert Rapier: What are a few of these essential qualities that you just contemplate in a
profitable chief?
Rudy Garza: I’m a frontrunner that expects humility out of my group. It shouldn’t be about us; it must be concerning the people who we serve. From a management standpoint, we’ve got to be
open to criticism. I’ve this analogy that when my leaders and I are in a room, we’re like
the Knights of the Spherical Desk. There’s no head. There’s no tail. We’re all equal in that
room. And all people can deliver their views and their concepts to the desk. And guess
what? They don’t should agree with mine.
In actual fact, if my leaders aren’t telling me the issues I would like to listen to, simply the issues I need to
hear, then they’re not doing their jobs. I would like our leaders to observe by way of on their
commitments. That’s essential to me, particularly when staff don’t perceive our
technique and so they come to us asking questions on why we’re doing sure issues. If we
don’t get again to them in a well timed method, if we’re not answering these questions, then
how are they ever going to get on board with what we’re making an attempt to perform? That
approachability and that sort of servant management is tremendously essential to what I
need my management group to be at CPS Power.
I feel we’re doing a very good job of being accountable leaders, main with integrity, and
being clear in why we’re doing we’re doing. All these issues are features of our core
values. It’s not nearly what we do; it additionally must be about how we’re doing it.
Robert Rapier: Yeah, integrity is one thing I at all times inform folks. You probably have integrity,
every little thing else sort of falls into place. I need to ask about the way you stability the calls for
of your job together with your private and household life. What’s a day like in your life?
Rudy Garza: I realized from Doyle early in my profession about work-life stability. It was not his job to make sure that my work-life stability was proper, it was as much as me. Having mentioned that, I strive laborious not hassle my staff when they need to be having dinner with their households. You’ll have a one off about an emergency. That’s regular; we’re a 24/7 operation. However it is best to be capable of work effectively sufficient throughout the day to not hassle folks within the evenings when they need to be with their households. I don’t hassle folks on weekends if I can assist it.
On the finish of the day, it’s the chief’s job to create an setting the place work-life stability
is feasible. However I can’t preserve any person from working 20 hours a day in the event that they’re simply wired that approach. So, a part of it’s the particular person accountability of figuring out when to close it off. And the opposite half is the managerial accountability of making an setting that respects
folks’s non-public time.
Kym Bolado: Rudy, one factor struck me very deeply whenever you mentioned you had by no means actually
thought of your pathway to being the CEO till any person mentored you. How
essential is mentoring within the CPS tradition?
Rudy Garza: It’s immensely essential. We’ve got a number of mentoring packages that exist to
be certain that we’re listening to the various expertise at CPS Power. I’m a product of
profitable mentoring packages, and that’s basic to our management coaching
program. We’ve got formal mentoring packages that our Individuals and Tradition group manages
along with worker useful resource teams which have their very own mentoring packages. I’m
continuously on the lookout for that spark in any person that claims they’re able to do greater issues.
There are people who simply stand out due to how inquisitive, constructive, or dedicated
they’re to serving to us obtain our targets. You must discover a strategy to acknowledge folks like
that and assist them alongside.
I didn’t dream that I might be a CEO as a result of I didn’t see it. It takes leaders desirous to
mirror their group to develop folks in a approach that offers all people the identical likelihood
to achieve success. What’s essential about mentoring packages is that you just’re mining for
expertise, making an attempt to determine who stands out and who’s essentially the most succesful. After I have a look at my
each day priorities, interacting with my staff is completely on the prime of the record.
I’m speaking to staff in some a part of the group each single day. I make {that a}
precedence as a result of that’s how I assist develop folks. They should get inside my head and
know the way I take into consideration issues.
Robert Rapier: Rudy, thanks a lot for taking us deep into your world immediately. We
completely admire your time and look ahead to talking with you once more.
Rudy Garza: My pleasure, thanks for having me.
Supply hyperlink
