Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this episode of CEOs you should know San Antonio.
My name is pederal A Laida, and today I have
the pleasure of speaking to a gentleman who's got a
big role within the CPS Energy Company here in San Antonio,
serving San Antonio and surrounding areas. Rudyd Gottasa is the
President and CEO of CPS Energy, the nation's largest community
(00:21):
owned electric and natural gas utility. He is the first
Hispanic leader to hold the position. Rudy has over has
more than twenty five years of experience as a leader
in the utility industry and has served in both the
public and private sectors over the course of his career.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Let's welcome him now, Rudy the Gottasa.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you for having me today, Pedal.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
No, thank you for coming in. Rudy.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Before we dive into the hard questions, tell me a
little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Who is Rudy Gottasa.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Well, I'm a South Texan, you know, born and raised,
grew up in Corpus Christy, you know, far south San Antonio.
I joke that, you know, San Antonio is just a
bigger version of Corpus right. It's amazing, you know how
how how slowly removed you are. You know from people
(01:11):
that you know. Everywhere you go, you run into people
that you know. It's true. Everybody from Corpus has family here.
Buddy from here that I know of, that's family and Corpus.
So so I've spent a lot of my time growing
up coming back and forth between Corpus and San Antonio.
I've been up here now for you know, close to
thirteen years, and I love San Antonio. It's a great community.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
It is a fantastic community that continues to grow as
we all know. I think the latest statistic is I think,
like what two hundred families or something like that, or
two hundred people are moving to San Antonio a day,
and it's it's it's intriguing to see because we saw
this type of growth over the last few years with
our neighbors just up north of here, right Austin. But
(01:52):
now to see it happening in San Antonio is truly exciting,
and with that brings a lot of changes and challenges.
Let's talk about EPs energy and what they're doing to
address the rapid growth here in the city. But let's
start with what do you feel is the biggest strength
of CPS Energy right now.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, our strength is always going to be in our people.
You know, our people have a heart of service. They
understand that we're a community owned, you know, asset that
you know, the the the everything that we do from
a revenue perspective goes right back into our community, whether
it's serving you customers, you know, maintaining reliability for existing customers,
(02:30):
sending money back to the City of San Antonio to
pay you know, who is our owner that pays for
all kinds of great things that they have to do
for our community. So our people are always our strongest asset,
and it's really truly what makes EPs Energy special.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
What have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome
since being at CPS Energy.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, remember I took over, you know, a little less
than three years ago, right after Winter Storm Marea. So
there couldn't have been a more difficult time for for
us as a company. You know. Right prior to Winterstorm Mariy,
we enjoyed some of the highest credibility ratings of any
governmental entity in San Antonio, and winter Storm Maria hit
(03:08):
and boom, we tanked, you know, and uh, and so
I've spent three years trying to rebuild the trust with
the community. We got to work. We you know, we
we were financially in a tough spot at in that moment,
so we had to stabilize ourselves financially, uh and then
just get get back to work. We're building trust with
our customers.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
And so and we've done that. You know, we're all
of our numbers are on the rise. Are you know,
how our customers feel about us is getting better. We're
you know, we're not quite back to where we were
prior to Winter Storm Mariy, but we're getting there. Uh.
And so you know, I spent the first year of
my you know, ten years stabilizing the organization. UH. And
then we got to work putting a plan together and
(03:46):
and uh and executing that plan. And so I'm really
proud of the work that my team and I have
been able to do to really get back to where
we need to be. Nobody should want CPS Energy to
be weak and to be you know, struggling. You know,
we're that's not good for the community as a whole.
And so we understand, you know, how important we are
to the community. We're doing our best just to keep
the lights on and the gas flowing and to do
(04:08):
that as affordably as we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know, I think it's a bit unfair that CPS
Energy and not just CPS, a lot of electric companies
around the state get the blame for what happened, right,
But we know it was a bigger issue. Number one
is mother Nature and number two it was the grid
operator here, right, That's where the big issue was. But
but I'm glad that number one CPS Energy immediately got
(04:31):
to work to repair the issues that happened throughout the city,
whether it was falling branches on a wire or whatever
the case. You guys were on it, and I love
that message right now that you're working hard to win
back the trust of San Antonio.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, our customers aren't used to being out of power,
you know, and so when they were, it was a
huge shock because we're the one of the most reliable utilities,
you know, in the country, and so you know, so
it's I always joke it's like, you know, it's like
how you feel about an ex boyfriend or ex girlfriend, right, Yeah,
you still love them, but you're really really upset with them, right,
(05:05):
And that's how our customers felt about us. They loved us.
They were really upset with us.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's one of those I hate you and then they whispered,
but I love you exactly, but I can't quit you exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
You know. But you can't do anything without energy, you know,
or water for that matter, and we we struggle with
both during Winterstorm Marreas. So rightfully, our customers had a
reason to be upset. And you know, rather than than
you know, then, than than deflect blame, you know, the
best thing to do in the moment, will say, hey, look,
I'm sorry we failed, you know, in that moment when
you know we have to do better, and we've done
(05:35):
everything we can. There has not been an event anywhere
near the scale of YEARI since then, and I feel
good that we've made it through. You know, really five
you know, extreme weather seasons now with relatively you know,
no issues, and we're in the middle of the summer
and so far, so good. So so again, we understand
our job and we're trying to do the very best
we can at that.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Now you kind of touch this on, uh, touch on
this already, But what are you proud regarding the company?
What are you most proud of regarding the company? CPS energy.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Well, again, we have a good plan, you know, we
you know, we've spent a lot of time asking customers
what they think. You know, what is it that you
expect from your community owned utility? And that's not rocket science.
They want a reliable utility that's there when they need us,
and they want us to be affordable, and they want
us to be dealing with climate change and you know,
(06:25):
reducing our carbon in a way that maintains the first
two priorities. And and so that's what I'm most proud
of is the manner in which we've gone about trying
to rebuild that trust. You know, we we we One
of the things that I talk a lot about is
the fact that we're one team, and that that that
applies to our employees inside the company or you know,
I'm nobody, nobody is any more important than anybody else,
(06:48):
including you know, me and my leadership team. We're just
you know, another part of the process that it takes
for us to be successful. And guess what. The community
plays a role in that. Our board plays a role
in that, city council plays a role in that. You know,
our customers play a role in that. So you know,
if we're all moving in the same direction. If we're
all rowing generally in the same direction, then we're gonna
We're gonna do just fine. But to do that, you
(07:10):
have to communicate to two ways. You have to listen
to what your customers are telling you. Then you've got
to go do something about it. And and that's what
I'm most proud of, is I really like the manner
in which we've gotten back to where we need to be.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
What goals do you have for the company?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well, we've got a lot of old power plants, and
those old power plants have to be retired, and we've
got to go out and you know, we've required power
plants now down in Corpus Christi, my hometown, and down
lo Edo. Uh. And so we've kind of expanded our
regional footprint, which just makes our ability to provide a
reliable service for our customers here in San Antonio, uh,
you know, all that more resilient. And so I feel
(07:45):
good about the progress we're making towards transitioning our generation portfolio.
We got a lot of transmission work to do in
the in the in the years ahead of us, We've
got growth in every direction. San Antonio is the fastest
growing community in the country. Yep, you know, and we've
been that in the top at least three probably for
the last eight to ten years. Guess what Austin can't
(08:08):
grow anymore. You mentioned Austin. They're growing vertical because it
can't grow.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Out indirect spreading.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And we have we've really got land in every direction
right now, and we don't have the ability to pick
and choose who we're going to serve. If a customer
shows up at our doorstep, we have an obligation to
serve them, and so we've got to do that by
making sure we're planning for the future while taking care
of our customers today.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Can you talk about your organization's mission, vision or values, Well,
we're an evolving utility.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
That is our vision is that you know, the the
amount of change that's going on in our industry right now,
we're going to make We're gonna we're going to affect
that change by making it happen. We're not going to
let change happen to us. So we recognize then we're
that we're in a state of evolution, and our vision
is to evolve in the way we need to evolve
to serve our customers, you know, and from a mission standpoint,
(09:01):
it goes back to those fundamentals. We've got to be reliable,
we've got to be competitively priced, we've got to be sustainable,
and we got to think about the equity issues of
our community. We serve a moderate to low income, you
know community. A lot of our customers struggle to pay
their bills, but they try really hard to do the
right thing and pay us with the can and so
so we have to do all of that in an
(09:22):
equitable manner, making sure we're taking care of those least
able to you know, to afford, you know, live their
cost of living. And I think we're doing a great job.
You know. Really it's a lot of us to just
focus on the fundamentals that that are going to determine
whether or not we're successful. I don't need to be
the best utility in the world. Do I want to
be the best utility? Of course I do. But if
(09:42):
my customers aren't happy with me, then what is that matter?
What does that matter?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
You know, if so as long as my customers feel
good about the job that we're doing, then I'll take
that as a success all day long. And we got
to do that. And you know, it's not just about
what we do, which is provide electric and guess serves,
but it's also about how we do it. You know,
we have to be accountable when things go wrong. We
have to be transparent in how we communicate with the organization.
(10:08):
We have to act with integrity. We've got to be
excellent in our execution, which I believe we're the best
in the business. I'll put my employees up and my
leadership team up against any utility in the country, and
I think, you know, CPS Energy will you know, our
community would be would be pretty proud of that. You know,
we have to be safe and manage our employees, you know,
both physical and mental, you know, well being. So I
(10:30):
think our values are you know, we're in a pretty
good place. Uh and uh and and and again it's
all about the blocking and tackling right now, I think
the way we're setting priorities is CPS Energy is really
pretty good.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I hope the folks that are listening to this right
now picked up on the passion in your voice in
which and how you answered that question, the passion that
you have to serve the community, the customer, your employees
the company, right, CPS Energy. So I really hope people
listening to this right now picked up on that, because
you don't always get to hear that amount of passion.
(11:04):
And I don't want to, you know, say all CEOs
are like that, but you don't always hear that passion.
You hear the answer, right, But the energy and the passion,
I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Well. Look, I mean you mentioned it at the beginning,
being the first Latino CEO at CPS Energy. I'm super
proud of that, you know, and I carry you know,
that honor humbly. You know, I've got to represent you know,
are hinted the right way. You know, We've got to
do the right things. And you know, I try to
stay out of the paper and not make you know, mistakes,
(11:33):
you know, in the manner which sometimes CEOs tend to do.
And I'm we're just trying to do our jobs, you know.
And I don't need credit. I don't need you know,
I don't I don't need accolades. You know, if you
come into your office and you hit the light switch
and light turns on, it's good enough for me.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I love that time for some rapid fire questions to
give me the answer the first answer that comes to mind,
given the choice of anyone in the world, who would
you want to have as a dinner guest.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So I've got to terrifying question. But I saw this beforehand,
living or or past. You know, honestly, if I could
have dinner with with with Jesus Christ, I'd love to
pick his brain about a few days.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So, you know, I don't know, I would start with
why what's going on?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
You know?
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, describe your hopes for the upcoming year in one sentence,
you know, with so.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Much uncertainty that in our country, you know, I just
hope we find some stability. I think people are really
you know, uncertain about the future. Uh. And and whatever happens,
you know, whether it be the presidential election or whatever,
I think our country needs just a little bit of stabilities.
That's what I'm hopeful hopeful for. I like that.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Uh, what kind of what? What kind of shower ideas
do you get?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
What?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Actually between Uh, usually when I jump in the shower,
you know, I hit Alexo with the know some you know,
some YouTube or you know whoever I'm wanting to hear
that day, and I get some great ideas in the shower.
Typically I get ideas in the shower. I'll get out
of the shower and I'll send a text message to
one of my leaders saying, hey, you know, I have
this idea, you know, and I'll give you one of
an idea I had in the shower that my chief
(13:17):
of staff Loretta is working on right now. I thought,
you know, we have a conference room that we have
our leadership team meetings in up on the fifteenth floor,
you know, at the CPS Energy headquarters. And I had
this idea one day in the shower. I was like,
you know, wouldn't it be cool if all the leaders
picked a quote that drives how they're trying to lead
(13:39):
and actually put that up on the wall. So when
when our employees come meet with us, they actually see,
you know, what type of leaders were aspiring to be?
Because I get that question all the time, you know
what type of leader you know? Are you are you
wanting to be? And I'm like, you know, you know,
how can we outwardly show that? And that's an idea
I literally got in the shower. I said, you know
what I'm gonna have have, you know, my chief of
(14:01):
staff pull all of our all of my direct reports
and me including myself, and we're gonna come up with
the leadership quote. We're gonna put it up on the
wall and and that's an accountability measure for us so
that when we're not being those things, our people can say, hey,
you know it says up there you're trying to be
a humble leader. That didn't sound real humble. You know
it's set up there that you know, everybody's opinion is
(14:21):
equal in this room, but you know you're you're not
acting in that manner. I just think it's a it's
a way to hold ourselves accountable.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
To absolute type of leaders that we.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Want to be.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I like that all CEOs or anybody in leadership, anybody
in management or whatever job you hold. Now we all
start somewhere. What's the oddest job you ever took to
earn a buck?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So my family was in the firework business growing up.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Oh perfect timing a record of this podcast fourth July.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So from the time I was eight till time I
was sixteen, I didn't get a July fourth holiday or
a New Year's holiday because I was stuck in a
fireworks stand in Freer, Texas with my dad, Wow, selling fireworks,
you know, from for you know, two weeks, and it
was either super hot or it was super cold, one
or the other. There was no in between. And I
didn't get paid. You know, my dad probably was breaking
(15:08):
some child labor laws back in those days. But when
I was young, I didn't care. I think he paid
me like fifty bucks a season, you know, to go
and work with him. But I got paid in fireworks.
Whatever fireworks I didn't sell, I got to fire off
at the end of the season, which was usually a
lot of fun. So that's that's that's my But I
tell you, you know, I was always good in math,
(15:29):
and and I was good in math because at eight
years old, you know, my dad would watch me, you know,
adding up the orders on the back of a brown
paper bag, and he got after me. He goes, you
got to you gotta be faster than that. You got
to do it in your head. So I mean I
would add up a thousand dollars order in my head
as an eight year old. Wow, I got pretty good
at math pretty quick, you know. And and so I
(15:49):
always kind of, you know, tell that story because that's
one way that I was able to work on my
mass skills is because you know, if not my dad
be yelling at me in the corner of the stand
that I want work.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I can't even do that now as an adults.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So tell me. Imagine man, and my dad was watching me,
and he was adding it up in his head. He
tried to he try to see if I come up
with the same answer you came up with.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
That's amazing. I'm gonna add one last question here. I
hope your team doesn't mind, because I know I said
no surprises, but it's a good question, and you kind
of already touched on this throughout the conversation, But what
is the one thing you want to say to the
people listening to this podcast and primarily a CPS Energy customer.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
First off, we we understand our responsibility to the community.
You know, I want customers to understand that nobody takes
the job that we have serving San Antonio more seriously
than me or my my alignement. My linemen, you know,
are out there in the in the heat of the
summer and the cold of the winter, when it's raining,
when it's you know, not raining away from their families
(16:52):
during the holidays, you know, because they care about you know,
our customers, and so I just want to reinforce that
as a utility, we understand what our customers expect out
of us, and we're doing our best even when we
don't do it right, even when we fail at times.
You know, I'd like to say we never have outages,
but sometimes we do. But it is not because of
(17:14):
a lack of effort or a lack of caring about
you know, what our customers have going on that that
that we fail in those moments. We get it, you know,
and we're trying our best, you know, to do the
best job we can do every day, and ultimately, I
embrace the accountability that comes with that. You know, with
everything that I have, I've got I'm responsible for thirty
six hundred employees. You know, I'm responsible for their careers.
(17:37):
I'm responsible for them putting food on their family's table.
Take that pretty seriously. You know, I'm responsible for you know,
one point three million customers, two million. You know, San
Antonio is all over you know, Bear County. I want,
you know, to do the best job we can do.
You know that. I mean, you wonder what keeps me
up at night being responsible for all you know that
you know accountability. It's it's huge, you know, and when
(18:00):
we don't do it right or I know we can
be better in certain things, that's kind of stuff that
I'll wake up at three o'clock in the morning thinking,
you know, we got to do better, you know. So
that's what I want to people take away more than anything,
is that we get, you know, what our customers expect
out of us, and we're doing everything we can do
to do it right.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Rudy, I love the passion, I love the energy. Thank
you so much for coming in today recording this podcast
with us. Rudy got us president and CEO of CPS Energy.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Thank you, Pedal, thank you. It's fun.