January 8, 2021 • EPE Related News
El Paso Electric has new chief financial officer, 2 other key executives as CEO adjusts
El Paso Electric has new chief financial officer, 2 other key executives as CEO adjusts
Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times
January 7, 2021
El Paso Electric has a new chief financial officer — one of its key executive positions.
The company also added two other key executives who were hired late last year as Kelly Tomblin, named the utility’s new chief executive officer in July, shapes her management team. So far, her team includes most of the executives in place before she became CEO and before the company was sold July 29 to the JPMorgan-Chase-tied Infrastructure Investments Fund, or IIF, for $4.3 billion.
Richard Ostberg, who became chief financial officer Dec. 28, most recently was chief accounting officer for just over three years at Pattern Energy Group, a San Francisco company that develops and operates wind, solar, transmission and energy-storage projects in the United States, Canada and Japan.
He replaces Nathan Hirschi, 57, who retired in November. Hirschi was chief financial officer for six of the 10 years he worked for the utility. He's one of several company executives and board members who received million-dollar-plus payouts from their stock shares and stock award holdings when privately held IIF bought the utility.
The utility is an important company for this region, not only because it provides electricity for 437,000 customers in the El Paso and Las Cruces, New Mexico, areas, but also because with about 1,100 employees, it's one of the area's largest private employers.
“With a career that spans over three decades, I am confident Richard will serve as a transformational leader for both our company and the electric utility industry,” Tomblin said in a statement. “He understands the complexities of leading accounting and finance teams, and across publicly traded and privately-owned utility companies.”
Ostberg, 55, a certified public accountant has about 30 years of experience in finance, accounting, regulatory risk, and auditing, according to El Paso Electric. Prior to working at Pattern Energy, he was chief financial officer for SourceGas, now operating as Black Hills Energy, which operates electric and natural gas utilities in eight states.
In his new job, Ostberg oversees El Paso Electric's finance and accounting teams, Nuclear Energy Regulatory Commission compliance, and corporate compliance risk management.
The company also hired Cynthia Henry as its general counsel in October. She replaced Adrian Rodriguez, who was general counsel when he was named interim chief executive officer Aug. 1, 2019, after Mary Kipp left as CEO to head Puget Sound Energy in the Seattle area.
Rodriguez, who helped lead the company as it went through more than a yearlong regulatory review of its sale agreement announced in June 2019, left the utility when Tomblin took over as CEO in September. He did not publicly disclose his future plans.
Prior to moving to El Paso Electric, Henry worked in Denver as manager of regulatory policy for Xcel Energy. Xcel, based in Minneapolis, operates electric utilities in eight states. She oversees all of El Paso Electric's legal matters.
Also, Cynthia Prieto was promoted to controller in October. Prieto, who's worked at El Paso Electric since June 2006, previously was director of tax for the company. As controller, she oversees the utility's accounting, budget, tax, payroll and financial systems teams.
She replaced Russell Gibson, who retired in October. Gibson served two stints as El Paso Electric's controller — from September 2014 until October and from 1989 to 1994. In between, he was chief financial officer at ReadyOne Industries, a not-for-profit company operating a garment factory and other businesses, and CFO at El Paso consumer products company Helen of Troy.
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