by Pattern News | Jun 2, 2022 | News, pattern stories
By Rick Ruggles Santa Fe New Mexican May 28, 2022 One of the biggest wind-energy projects in the world is being whipped up in Central New Mexico, a giant stride for the state’s role in renewable energy. The overseer of the project, Pattern Energy, already has...General Manager and Chief Engineer of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Martin L. Adams is the General Manager and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
Mr. Adams brings to the post more than 35 years of experience, leadership, and understanding of LADWP operations. Mr. Adams was previously the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the LADWP. Prior to that, he served as Senior Assistant General Manager – Water System. He has been involved in local and regional water issues for more than 30 years with a career that has touched on most every aspect of Los Angeles’ water system, including planning, design, and operation. Prior to leading the Water System, he headed the LADWP Water Operations Division, which is responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the City’s water supply system.
A civil engineer by training, Mr. Adams is a native of Glendale, California, and attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Outside of work, he also serves as Chairman of the Board of the new San Fernando Community Health Center and recently completed nine years on the Water and Power Board for the City of Burbank.
New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands
Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard is the first woman, the first Latina, and the first educator to serve in the position as New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands.
Born in Tucumcari and raised in Silver City, Stephanie learned at a young age the importance of serving others. Her father, a WWII veteran, was a teacher; her mother was active in their church and community. Stephanie grew up in a family that operated ranches on the eastern plans and northern mountains of New Mexico, sparking the strong connection to our land that she holds today. After graduating from Silver High School, Stephanie went on to receive her undergraduate degree from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.
Stephanie was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 2012. During her six years as a State Representative, she championed laws to increase access to a quality education, transparency, and investments in renewable energy, job training, and economic development. She served as Chair of the House Education Committee for two years before being elected Land Commissioner in 2018.
As Land Commissioner, Stephanie is focused on raising as much money as possible while always keeping an eye toward stewardship and preserving the land for generations to come. We can diversify the revenue that comes into the Land Office by tripling the number of renewable energy projects, promoting outdoor recreation, and encouraging new and innovative commercial development on state trust land. With the largest continuous oil and gas resources potential ever assessed in the world sitting in Southeast New Mexico, and land that is prime for wind and solar development, Commissioner Garcia Richard is committed to working to make more money for New Mexico while protecting the health of our land.
VP, External Affairs and Market Intelligence, Pattern Energy
Sarah Webster is Vice President External Affairs and Market Intelligence for Pattern Energy. She oversees all of Pattern’s government relations at the state, provincial, and federal levels and is also responsible for corporate communications, including media, branding and corporate social responsibility.
Sarah has been with Pattern Energy since 2013 and enjoys building relationships with company stakeholders and serving as a diplomatic core for the company. She has worked in the energy sector for nearly 20 years and has also worked as a music critic for the Houston Press.
Torrance County Commissioner
Kevin McCall was elected as Torrance County commissioner in 2018. Kevin is a life-long resident of the area. He & his wife have two children, raised in Moriarty, but now both attending college. Kevin & his wife own a farm in Moriarty. Alongside the farming, they run an agritourism business, McCall’s Pumpkin Patch, which offers fieldtrips, family entertainment & a haunted attraction every fall.
Cabinet Secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)
Sarah Cottrell Propst was appointed by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to serve as the Cabinet Secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) in January 2019. EMNRD’s divisions include Energy Conservation & Management, Forestry, Mining & Minerals, Oil Conservation, and State Parks. From 2012 to 2018, she served as the Executive Director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, a non-profit trade association that represents the nation’s leading companies in the renewable energy industry, bringing them together with non-governmental organizations in the West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). She is the founder of Propst Consulting LLC, specializing in energy and environmental policy. She was Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department after serving as Energy and Environmental Policy Advisor to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. She earned a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Princeton School of Public & International Affairs, with a concentration in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy. She worked as a Research Fellow for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, VA, and was a magna cum laude graduate of Davidson College with Honors in Political Science.
Chairman, New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority
Robert Busch has over 35 years of broad-based management experience in energy with responsibilities ranging from international strategic energy consulting to providing strategic, financial, and support services. Busch was the CFO of two major U.S. utilities. Prior to this position, he was the President and COO of Public Service Enterprise Group Services Corporation and CFO of Public Service Gas and Electric. Earlier in his career he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Northeast Utilities. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Case Institute of Technology, his Master of Science degree in Engineering Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his MBA with highest honors from Northeastern University. Busch has received numerous awards including the American Nuclear Society Governance Award, the Wall Street Journal Award for Academic Excellence, and the Northeastern University Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
As Chairman of the RETA Board, Busch is helping to lead the effort to access the large wind and solar resources that exist in New Mexico. RETA is the first independent state authority in the nation to clearly focus on the problem of how to provide high voltage transmission to remote areas that have enormous renewable energy potential.
Senator of New Mexico
Elected in 2012, Martin Heinrich is a United States Senator for New Mexico. Heinrich serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Armed Services, Intelligence, and Joint Economic Committees. He is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
With a background in engineering, Heinrich brings a unique perspective to the Senate, where he is focused on creating the jobs of the future and protecting the vital missions at New Mexico’s national labs and military installations. He is a strong advocate for working families, a staunch ally of Indian Country, and a champion for New Mexico’s public lands and growing clean energy economy.
Serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Heinrich is deeply committed to ensuring our men and women in uniform are prepared for the threats they face and making sure we keep our promises to those who serve. New Mexico plays a pivotal role in our national security. The state is home to several military installations – Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, Cannon Air Force Base, Fort Bliss, and White Sands Missile Range – two major national laboratories – Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories – and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Through his role on the committee, Heinrich has secured new missions and made sure the personnel at New Mexico’s defense installations have the resources and support they need to keep the nation safe.
An avid sportsman and conservationist, Heinrich works to protect New Mexico’s public lands, watersheds, and wildlife for future generations. He worked with local communities to designate the Río Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments. Heinrich also led the effort to create the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah and Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Areas, open up public access to the Sabinoso Wilderness, establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Los Alamos, and transition the Valles Caldera National Preserve to National Park Service management. Heinrich serves as a member of the Migratory Bird Commission, where he helps approve grants to restore and conserve essential wildlife habitat. Heinrich is working to pass legislation to upgrade Bandelier and White Sands National Monuments into new national parks. He is also leading the effort to pass bipartisan sportsmen’s legislation to extend key conservation programs and improve public access to public lands for hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation.
With its abundance of solar and wind resources and energy research hubs, New Mexico can lead the way in combating the devastating effects of climate change and modernizing our nation’s electrical grid. In 2015, Heinrich helped negotiate the long-term extension of renewable energy tax credits that support New Mexico’s growing clean energy industries. Heinrich introduced legislation to prepare New Mexico’s workforce for good-paying clean energy jobs. He has also supported the development of renewable energy projects on public and tribal lands, the adoption of innovative energy storage and battery technologies, and improvement to the security of our nation’s energy infrastructure.
To build a brighter economic future, Heinrich believes in investments in communities and the next generation of New Mexicans. Heinrich supports major investments in early childhood education, public schools, and health care. He introduced the bipartisan Two Generation Economic Empowerment Act to help states like New Mexico coordinate programs across human services, workforce development, education, and health care agencies so they can work more effectively to put parents and children on the path to success. He has also long championed strengthening the education pipeline for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers for all students including women and minorities.
Heinrich supports legislation to keep our promise to veterans, raise the federal minimum wage, close the gender wage gap, reduce the burden of student loan debt, ensure LGBTQ Americans have equal rights under federal law, and prevent violence against women. Representing a diverse border state, Heinrich is a leading voice for fixing our nation’s broken immigration system, meeting the security needs of border communities, and creating jobs by attracting more trade through New Mexico’s ports of entry. He has also introduced legislation to boost technology transfer and foster collaboration between New Mexico’s national laboratories, local businesses, and research institutions to help turn innovative technologies and materials developed in New Mexico into commercial businesses with great potential to grow and create jobs.
Heinrich is also a leader in protecting American constitutional liberties. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he was an original cosponsor of the USA FREEDOM Act, a law passed in 2015 that ended the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone and other records and ensured more accountability and transparency from the government surveillance agencies. Heinrich strongly supported the release of the Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration, and he continues to support reforms to prevent the future use of torture.
Heinrich is a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, Senate Outdoor Industry Caucus, Senate Climate Action Task Force, Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force, National Service Congressional Caucus, Congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus, and the founder of the Congressional Directed Energy Caucus and the Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus.
Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, Heinrich served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the House, Heinrich voted to cut taxes for the middle class, worked to make college more affordable, improved benefits for veterans, opposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and championed the DREAM Act as an original cosponsor. Heinrich authored the HEARTH Act to remove barriers to homeownership for American Indian families and led the effort in Congress to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Heinrich secured language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 that prohibited the retirement of the 150th Fighter Wing from Kirtland Air Force Base, which helped preserve 1,000 jobs.
Before he was elected to Congress, Heinrich served four years as an Albuquerque City Councilor and was elected as City Council President. During his time on City Council, Heinrich championed successful efforts to raise the city minimum wage, address crime through community policing, support local small businesses, make Albuquerque a leader in energy and water conservation, and fought for campaign finance reform. He also served as New Mexico’s Natural Resources Trustee, working to conserve the state’s outdoor heritage.
After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri, Heinrich and his wife, Julie, moved to Albuquerque where he began his career as a contractor working on directed energy technology at Phillips Laboratories, which is now Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base. Heinrich later served in AmeriCorps for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and was the Executive Director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation. He also led the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness and founded a small public affairs consulting firm.
Heinrich’s principled leadership is driven by his working-class upbringing, his wife, Julie, his two sons, and the people of New Mexico.
NMSU Corona Range and Livestock Research Center
Shad H. Cox is a native of Southeastern New Mexico and has lived and worked for the past 26 years at the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Corona Range and Livestock Research Center (CRLRC) in Corona, NM. The last 16 years have been spent as the Center’s Superintendent. Cox’s duties with NMSU consist of coordinating multi-faceted research programs to fit into the working ranch model developed to maintain economically sustainable production and reliability in client confidence and use of results. The CRLRC has continually increased applied research to address current issues of today’s livestock producers and land managers, while continuing a commitment to basic research to aid in development of critical knowledge to lead the range livestock industry through increased production while maintaining economic and environmental sustainability. Communication with an advisory committee have driven additional goals that have resulted in the success of the Southwest Center for Rangeland Sustainability, a concept of client-driven outreach and education, that developed the Rancher’s Roundtable, Beyond the Roundtable Symposium, Let’s Talk! Breakfast at the Ranch and Breakfast in Town programs, as well as, becoming the host of the United States Beef Academy.
Shad’s wife Trish has been the math teacher at Corona High School for the last 15 years and together they have raised three sons in the community – Cutler, Conner and Cabel. Cox recently completed a combined service of 17 years on the Corona Board of Education and is currently serving his 13th year on the Lincoln County Fair Association Board of Directors producing the Lincoln County Fair and Junior Livestock Sale, Smokey Bear Stampede Rodeo and the LCFA Benefit Ranch Rodeo funding the Lincoln County Cowboy Crisis Fund.
After spending two years at Western Texas College, Cox attended New Mexico State University earning a B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science.
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, PNM
Pat Vincent-Collawn is Chairman, President and CEO of PNM Resources, the parent company for utilities PNM in New Mexico and TNMP in Texas.
Vincent-Collawn joined PNM Resources in 2007, as Utilities President. In 2008, she was named President and Chief Operating Officer, and in March 2010 became President and CEO of PNM Resources. The Board elected her Chairman in January 2012.
Prior to PNM Resources, Vincent-Collawn was at Xcel Energy where she was President and CEO of Public Service Company of Colorado. Previous to that, as Xcel’s President of Customer and Field Operations, she oversaw transmission and distribution operations as well as customer service across 10 states. Vincent-Collawn also held management positions with Arizona Public Service, and outside the energy industry with Price Waterhouse and Quaker Oats.
On a national level, Vincent-Collawn is Chair of the Board of EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and past Chair of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade association that represents more than two hundred US investor-owned electric companies, as well as more than 60 international electricity providers.
Vincent-Collawn also serves on the boards of NEIL (Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited) and CTS Corporation (NYSE:CTS). She is a former member of the Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Vincent-Collawn was appointed Chair of the New Mexico Partnership by Governor Susana Martinez in 2015. She is past Chair of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and past Chair of both the United Way of Central New Mexico and the Kirtland Partnership Committee.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism (magna cum laude) from Drake University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Chief Executive Officer, Pattern Energy
Mike Garland serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Pattern Energy, a position he has held since he co-founded Pattern Energy in 2009. He oversees all aspects of Pattern, with special focus on industry strategy, capital formation, market and project selection, and company culture.
For more than 30 years, Mike has focused on developing, constructing, managing, and investing in energy and infrastructure projects in the United States and around the world. He closed his first wind project financing in 1989, and has since successfully managed or oversaw the development, investment and operations of nearly 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects worldwide and nearly $50 billion in infrastructure assets.
Together with his wife Gigi, Mike co-founded The Bay School, a high school in San Francisco that focuses on technology and ethics. Mike and Gigi also support the University of California, Berkeley’s Physics Department and the University of Washington’s Medical School. Mike sits as an active Trustee of the University of California, Berkeley Foundation and currently serves on the board of directors of SteelRiver Infrastructure Fund North America, GP. He is based in San Francisco.
Governor of New Mexico
Michelle Lujan Grisham is the thirty-second governor of the state of New Mexico, the first Democratic Latina to be elected governor in U.S. history.
As governor, Lujan Grisham has implemented a series of evidence-based policies aimed at transforming New Mexico’s public education system, expanding the state’s economy to include more high-quality employment opportunities and preserving New Mexico’s air, land and water. In 2019, she oversaw one of the most productive legislative sessions in state history, signing a broad package of bipartisan bills into law, notably a historic investment in public education and a landmark transition to clean energy.
A longtime state Cabinet secretary at both the New Mexico Department of Aging and Long-term Services and Department of Health, Lujan Grisham has been a leading advocate for senior citizens, veterans and the disabled as well as investments in health care infrastructure and innovative programming that has improved access and quality of care for New Mexicans across the state.
She was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2011, serving three terms in Washington on behalf of New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. As a member of Congress, she worked aggressively to support local tribes, equal pay for women, public schools, public lands and veterans’ health care; she also advocated strongly for saving and creating clean New Mexico jobs. As chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, she became a vocal, national leader in the battle against reactionary federal anti-immigrant policies.
Driven by a deep compassion for seniors and those living with disabilities, and with experience as a caregiver herself, Lujan Grisham introduced and led the push for Care Corps, an innovative caregiving initiative that places volunteers in communities to provide non-medical services to seniors and individuals with disabilities. With this support, people can continue to live independently in their homes and communities.
Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe before earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of New Mexico. A 12th-generation New Mexican, she is the mother of two adult children and grandmother of three. She is the caretaker for her mother, Sonja.
Vice President, North American Development, Pattern Energy
Cary Kottler serves as Vice President of North American Development for Pattern Energy. In this role, he is responsible for development of wind and electric transmission initiatives across North America, as well as the evaluation and origination of new opportunities.
Prior to joining Pattern, Cary served as Executive Vice President of Clean Line Energy. He held a number of roles at Clean Line across the development, commercial and legal sectors, with responsibilities encompassing project development, state and federal permitting processes, FERC matters, corporate compliance, financing arrangements, and commercial agreements.
Previously, Cary was a corporate attorney for Vinson & Elkins, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, project development and private equity investments in the energy and power sector, both domestically and internationally.
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