Allete’s CEO Bethany Owen takes helm at crossroads
A long-planned and orderly transition of power at Allete, the Duluth-based parent company of Minnesota Power, was ruffled by the COVID – 19 pandemic.
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USA, Minnesota, Duluth: A long-planned and orderly transition of power at Allete, the Duluth-based parent company of Minnesota Power, was ruffled by the COVID – 19 pandemic.
Bethany Owen, who was elected CEO of Allete in February 2020, and had just finished moving into the corner office, gets the biggest test of her career as the pandemic swept the country.
Minnesota Power’s largest customers — iron mines and paper mills — cut back production and clouded financial projections for Allete, which in May took the unusual step of suspending 2020 earnings guidance, citing unpredictability caused by the pandemic.
Amid all this, Owen said her priority was to get many of her 1,400 employees working from home or better protected while on the front lines.
While most of the mines have come back online, the stock has yet to rebound to pre-pandemic heights. Allete’s market value has sunk from $4.19 B at the start of the year to $2.8 B.
The company is rooting for highly contentious projects like the PolyMet copper-nickel mine while also supporting increased wind and solar production. Minnesota Power expects to get half of its energy from renewables by next year.
As the head of an energy company, Owen finds herself beholden to customers, regulators, shareholders, cost-sensitive industries and, increasingly, social forces calling for a faster push toward green energy and diversity and inclusion among the company’s ranks.
Even without the pandemic, it would have been a busy year at Allete. The company’s clean-energy arm continues to grow, a Minnesota Power rate increase was reduced, progress was made toward a controversial new natural gas plant and a high-power transmission line carrying Canadian hydropower to Minnesota was finished.
Owen has remained focused on implementing her “Vision 2035” 15-year plan, an outline of how energy needs will be met that state regulators will consider in February 2021.
“We absolutely believe in sustainability and moving toward a cleaner energy economy,” Owen concluded.
Source: Star Tribune