Alabama Power Executive Earns National Praise

Robin Hurst, Alabama Power's senior vice president for Power Delivery, received the IEEE Power and Energy Society's "Leadership in Power" award at the 2008 IEEE Power and Energy Society's General Meeting held in Pittsburgh in July. The prestigious award recognizes industry leaders for exceptional contributions to the promotion of the electric power engineering profession. Although the Leadership in Power award can be given annually, the society maintains the prestigious nature of the award by presenting it only when nominees meet the award's high standards. Selection is based on an evaluation of each nominee's accomplishments, with a particular focus on the candidate's promotion of the importance of the power engineering profession, their work with university power engineering programs and their encouragement of young engineers through mentoring and career development programs.

After years of informal mentoring, Hurst created an Engineer in Training program at Alabama Power in 1993 to recruit, train and hire young engineers. To date, more than 200 engineers have gotten their start through the program. Hurst also serves, and encourages his employees to serve, on engineering department advisory committees at several universities. He has also held key leadership roles with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, and the Southeastern Electric Exchange.

SOURCE: IEEE