September 8, 2023 • 18 mins
Morgan K. O’Brien is Hope Gas’s and Hearthstone’s Chief Executive Officer. He is a native Pittsburgher who was raised by a blue-collar Irish-Catholic family to value all people and all forms of work. His work ethic and value of other people helped him rise to become CEO at Duquesne Light Company the electric provider for Western Pennsylvania. He later moved over to become the CEO at Peoples Gas serving Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. https://hopegas.com/who-we-are/#overvice
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(00:05):
And welcome. Man. This isthe CEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm
your host, Johnny Hrtwell, let'ssay hello to Margat O'Brien, CEO of
Hope Gas. Thank you for joiningme. Yeah, I'm excited to be
here and really appreciate you spend thetime today. So tell us everything we
need to know about your company.So, I mean, I hopefully the
people listening to this know what HopeGass is. It's it's a gash utility
(00:27):
that's been in West Virginia. We'recoming up on our one hundred and twenty
fifth birthday anniversary. So it's beena part of the roots of the state
for a very long time. Andyou know, we're we're excited, myself
and my team, you know,to have, okay, a voice in
one of the chapters of a longhistory of you know, i'll say,
(00:48):
a very embedded company and the rootsof West Virginia. Yeah, the core
of the company has been around fora long long time. But just for
my own edification, tell us aboutthe transition from the Minion to Hope Gas.
Even so, you know, Ias say, we're coming up on
our hundred and twenty fifth anniversary andduring those hundred and twenty five. The
company has lots of different owners,and most recently the company was owned by
(01:12):
Dominion Resources. Dominion Resource, youknow, for folks who don't follow the
energy space, is one of thelargest energy companies in the United States.
It's headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.It owns and I would say not every
state, but in many state itowns energy companies. And so Hope was
a small piece of a really bigentity, you know. As part of
(01:34):
that, you know, we I'llcall it the the Ulico Hearstone team that
came in to buy Hope. Wesaw West Virginia as sort of a really
gem for the future. We're obviouslyfocused on energy, focused on growing the
business, and we saw West Virginiahaving all those potentials and we felt like,
(02:00):
you know, as an owner,you know, Dominion was focused on
a lot of things, but WestVirginia wasn't one of their priorities. And
so when we acquired the company,the first thing we said was Dominion had
actually changed the name of the companyfor a short while, so it was
doing business as Dominion Energy West Virginia. So the customers bills, the people
(02:23):
who answered the phone, our trucks, the employees uniforms all set Dominion Energy,
West Virginia. And the first thingwe did is we said we're bringing
back the name Hope Right, onehundred twenty five year old company. People
know it. It's got a greatbrand here. But more importantly to that,
you know, let's say, justsort of along with the name change,
(02:43):
was that we were committed to creatinga headquarters of a company here in
West Virginia. So I'm sitting todayhere in Morgantown, West Virginia, and
I'll say the two pieces of thatwhich are really important is when we bought
the company from Dominion, all ofadministration, all of the support, customer
service, a lot of that wasdone out of Richmond, Virginia. So
(03:07):
we're bringing all those jobs into WestVirginia. For us, it's a great
opportunity. The jobs are coming here, but the people aren't. So we're
in the midst of hiring people tofill those roles here in West Virginia.
And you know, and for me, it's it's what feels good about this
is taking, you know, adeep rooted, long history company like Hope
(03:28):
Gas and hopefully putting its roots evendeeper here in West Virginia, you know,
with the headquarters and the people helpingthe customers, like the call center
all being here in West Virginia.You know, we're we're excited about,
you know, say, just reallytaking the West Virginia brand and hopefully you
know, building on it and growingwith it. So ultimately this this,
(03:51):
this sounds like all good things forthe customers. Yeah, I mean,
you know, like we're you know, we believe that. You know,
this is a a business has beenaround one hundred and twenty five years.
The my investors plan on it beingaround another one hundred twenty five years.
And how you do that, right, as you make your company more valuable
to the people you serve, Sohaving the people who answer the phone calls,
(04:15):
right, So something as simple asthat, Right, a customer has
an issue, they call the company. Historically they're talking to somebody out of
state, and that person's answering phonecalls from lots of other companies as well.
We fast forward to today and hereand hope and you know, you
have somebody sitting here in West Virginiato their only job is to help you,
(04:35):
the customer, solve your problem.And you know, more than likely
they'll know the town that you're in, they you know, they may even
know people that you know, andthere's there's a you know, a connection
there that you know, provides betterservice for us and hopefully for the customer
that's more valuable to them. Dopeople understand that with this change that there's
(04:58):
going to be opportunities and a managesto all of this. Is this something
that you've focused on as CEO.Yeah, you know, a part of
our message is that we're we believe, first of all, just I'll say,
are bringing hope to West Virginia.And the first you know, September
one was our one year anniversary,so we're you know, we're hitting the
(05:19):
ground running here. We've we've hiredover one hundred people here and for the
second part of this year, actuallythe fourth quarter, we expect to hire
another hundred people here in West Virginia. So two hundred jobs basically in the
first year, all good, familysustaining jobs, and some a lot of
them are in Morgantown, but actuallya good part of them are scattered throughout
(05:43):
the state of West Virginia where wehave operations throughout the state. So in
the last year is what is theone thing you're most proud of, you
know, I'd say that, youknow, we came here telling a story
that we can make a difference herein West Virginia. So I made a
lot of promises, right and youknow, so day one, I met
with the governor, I met withpublic service commissioners, I met with people
(06:05):
in the community, we let withyou, met with customers, and said,
we're going to do something here thatI think is special and it's going
to have an impact here in WestVirginia. And I'd say, you know,
only a year into it, wefeel like we've made meaningful impacts and
those opportunities that we were hoping todeliver on I think are greater that we
(06:26):
can have even more of an impactgoing forward. So I'm proud of that.
You know, the team that we'rebuilding here and the team that we
have here have embraced the idea thatwe can have a meaningful part in the
future of West Virginia and to makeit a brighter future than it would otherwise
be, and that we can playa meaningful part there. And we've we've
done it like we've played that partfor this first twelve months, and so
(06:48):
that gives hopefully everybody the realism thatwhat this crazy guy said to us on
day one is true, and nowwe're watching it and it builds, right
the enthusiast and for it and theideas just build from success. And so
I'd say with that question, that'swhat we're most proud of. So what
is your next focus? What isthe crazy guys focus over the next year,
(07:10):
so maybe one year, five years, ten years, what are some
of your goals? So you know, the part that get I get frustrated
within the energy space is it's it'sbecome very political on a national level.
So there's there's you listen to thepresidential debates, you listen to there are
people that some energy is bad,other energy is good. The reality is,
(07:33):
you know, we live in acountry that is rich with natural resources,
and we've had wars in my lifetimeover those natural resources when bad people
had control of those natural resources.And so we're living in a day where
you know, we've survived the pandemic. We learned a lot of things coming
(07:54):
out of that that you know,this country had let manufacturing go overseas and
a lot of stuff we're being madein China and the countries that we don't
consider necessarily our best friends. Andthe idea of bringing a lot of that
manufacturing back to this country has Ithink resonated with the average person how important
(08:15):
that is. And so for usin the energy space, we know that
as a manufacturer and as people whomake things, energy is a really important
ingredient to that. And so beingin a state like West Virginia that's rich
in energy, it's a competitive advantagefor West Virginia when we're trying to attract
i'll call it manufacturers, advanced manufacturersto build facilities in this country. And
(08:39):
you know, we had hope wantto help see more manufacturing, more advanced
manufacturing come here to the state andfor us to be the people at the
table to say we're going to haveplentiful energy, it's going to be affordable,
it's going to be environmentally responsible.All the things that you need,
we're going to deliver that are you. And by the way, there's forty
(09:01):
nine other states in this country thataren't as rich in those resources as we
are, and we think we're ina unique situation to really i'll say,
change the future of the state.You know, and for a small utility
to sit there and say bold thingsthat we're going to change the future of
the state. We're going to impactwhat's happening in this country, maybe change
(09:22):
the way people think about energy andhow important it is. All those things,
you know, makes I think usfeel bigger than we are. And
every day when you get up andyour purpose for why you come to work,
hopefully it gets bigger and more meaningfulas well. You talked about a
lot of challenges. What is yourbiggest challenges? What is your biggest challenge
(09:43):
and what do you think you wherewould you like to go with that?
How do you think you're going totackle that challenge? I think you know,
just because because we're staring at theenergy space, there's this belief that,
you know, fossil fuels are badand renewable energy is good, and
the sooner we get away from fallwill feel over to renewable that's the world's
(10:03):
going to be a better place,right And the reality of it is,
it's not the truth. Right.We in order to make car batteries,
we need fossil fuels to make thosecar batteries, in order to make the
iPhones and all the plastics that allcomes from liquids out of the natural gas
industry, right, and so weare the feedstock and the support of almost
(10:26):
everything that people use. And soto have those political discussions that says this
is bad and this is good whenpeople really don't understand how it all fits
together, that's that's a challenge.And our answer to the challenge is that
we are as a company focused onboth our residential families people that live in
(10:46):
their houses to become really valuable forthem and for businesses in particular, particularly
trying to attract business here in WestVirginia, is to be an important part
to them for their business where theycan't imagine a world without us. I
mean, our vision for Hope Guestsat some point is for every customer to
(11:07):
wake up in the morning and say, I can't imagine my world without Hope
Guests. That's that's our ultimate goalhere. In the meantime, coming up
with solutions helping people solve their energyissues, whether it's a sophisticated business or
just the average person trying to paytheir bills, all ends of the spectrum.
If we are i'll say innovative andthoughtful and how energy can be used
(11:31):
and also empathetic and you know,making sure that we have safety nets for
people that need it, sort ofall ends of that spectrum. Like ultimately,
that's that's where we need to getand we achieve that. I think
that's what people say, that's avaluable company. That's somebody I can't imagine
what the state would be like withoutit. Tell us, tell us your
(11:52):
background. You know, I've beenin the utility space a really long time.
I was born up and Berg.I ran the electric company up there
for a number of years. Iwent over to the natural gas business,
and and you know, I've justbeen a utility guy my parents. My
father is an Irish immigrant, eighthgrade education. His dream was to see
(12:15):
as kids go to school like alot of immigrants. And you know,
I've always been brought up that mymy job, my opportunity to do what
I do is a gift and it'snot something I'm entitled to. And so
I bring that I'll call it thework ethic and the idea that you know,
these are gifts that were given,not entitlements, and to treat it
(12:37):
like a gift. So is thiscrazy utility guy really want to make a
difference in the community. Is thatsomething that that is that is part of
your soul. Is that part ofyour person? Yeah, it's it's it's
who we are, and it's whothe people that work here are too,
So it's it's it's a it's acombining of like souls as you describe it.
(12:58):
And you know, the future andhow how we are seen in the
company and the impact we have andthe communities that we serve as really important
to us. And and and it'snot lost on us that you know,
everybody has their challenges in life,so we want to always be empathetic and
help people solve their problems because asa community and as an important part of
(13:22):
it, you know, that's that'sa really important part. We can't just
talk about growth and jobs and economicdevelopment and opportunities. We also have to
make sure that, you know,we're taking care of the people that that
truly need taking care of. Sotell us about the company's community involvement.
What are some organizations that you're affiliatedwith, So you know, we're we're
(13:43):
one year into it, right,so just I always tell people, remember
that, right, So we we'veyou know, I'll just talk to you
about a project that I got invitedto recently. You know, Louis county
is a high school that is asingle high school that's serves an entire county
here in West Virginia. And oneof our employees is involved down at the
(14:05):
high school and he brought a groupof us down there and said, you
know, this is a single highschool for a whole county and look at
the facilities they have, which embarrassingis maybe one way, or challenging is
another way to describe them. Andyou know, so we're we're working with
organizing a group of people that say, you know, if we believe that
(14:28):
we want to see a better futurethan our past, and we want to
help achieve a great future, youknow, making sure at an early age
that kids feel good about who theyare and where they live and their opportunities.
And a big part of that isthe support of the infrastructure. So
things like football fields and baseball fieldsand basketball you know, arenas are all
(14:50):
all important aspects to that. Andso we're we're actually working bringing a number
of people together, some resources togetherin the community to try to address and
improve I'll say, the opportunities thatkids perceive. You know, it's not
just you know that we say wehave a good education system and there'll be
jobs here, but that you know, they come to school and that they're
(15:11):
on the football team, they feelproud of the you know, the field
that they're in and the stadium thatthey're playing in front of, and it's
every kid, right, every kiddeserves that. And the disparity between facilities
is particularly at a high school level, is pretty pretty dramatic. And so
we're we see a community that I'llsay is maybe been left behind or people
(15:33):
just haven't prioritized, and we feellike that's a part we can play.
So we're actually calling on some ofthe businesses that we do work with,
businesses that we actually some of ourcustomers, to say, hey, which
you partner with us on something thatwill make a difference to the future and
make kids feel good about who theyare and where they live and then paint
(15:56):
that picture of the hope of whatwe want the state to be in the
future. And what other charities areyou involved with? You know where you
can check the box, you know, with all of the United Ways and
they'll call it the food shelters,and you know, our employees give every
weekends to supporting those those organizations.You know, I describe a utility worker
(16:18):
as a you know, basically apublic servant, you know, like a
policeman and a fireman. You know, when on a really cold day in
West Virginia, you know, whenyour gas isn't for whatever reason, getting
to your house, these guys areout in the cold, you know,
battling those weather to make sure theirneighbors are warm. And that's just who
they are. And so when youtake that as yours as you're you know,
(16:41):
you're in your soul, as yousaid earlier, and then talk about
how do you help the homeless,how do you help people who need food
and securities, all those challenges thatfamilies have. They right, it's just
intuitive for them to volunteer and notonly with their their moneys, but also
their talents well, speaking of supportingthe community, and this looks like it's
going to be a great time.Tell us a little bit about the West
(17:03):
Virginia pregame tailgate parties. Yeah,you know, so we uh, you
know, a big part of ourstory is that we want to help the
future of West Virginia. And soif you think of that, right,
what better way for us, especiallyinitially here than to develop a relationship with
the University of West Virginia and thentaking that down even further than the students
(17:26):
right. And one of the thingsthat we're pointed out to us is that
there really isn't call it a centraltailgate for students for football games. And
my first day here, I learnedvery quickly that college football is incredibly important
here in West Virginia. I've said, it's it's right below religion, right
(17:47):
and maybe even above it, dependingon who you are. So we had
this idea that we could host hereat our headquarters here in Morgantown in the
parking lot a tailgate for the studentsthroughout the season two hours before the game
in front of our building. We'regoing to have entertainment, We're going to
have you know, food, refreshments, it'll be a nice secure area,
(18:11):
all the amenities of the Port ofJohn's and making sure everybody's safe there.
But you know, it's our wayof connecting with the students and as you
said, you know, also supportingthem to enjoy themselves, but also to
feel good about, hopefully the futureof the state here in West Virginia.
Morgan O'Brien, CEO of Hope Gasand a CEO you should know Margan,
(18:33):
thank you so much. I appreciatehaving this time. Thank you. This
has been the CEO You Should Knowpodcast, showcasing businesses that are driving our
regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's commitmentto the communities we serve. I'm Johnny
Hartwell, thank you so much forlistening.
And welcome. Man. This isthe CEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm
your host, Johnny Hrtwell, let'ssay hello to Margat O'Brien, CEO of
Hope Gas. Thank you for joiningme. Yeah, I'm excited to be
here and really appreciate you spend thetime today. So tell us everything we
need to know about your company.So, I mean, I hopefully the
people listening to this know what HopeGass is. It's it's a gash utility
(00:27):
that's been in West Virginia. We'recoming up on our one hundred and twenty
fifth birthday anniversary. So it's beena part of the roots of the state
for a very long time. Andyou know, we're we're excited, myself
and my team, you know,to have, okay, a voice in
one of the chapters of a longhistory of you know, i'll say,
(00:48):
a very embedded company and the rootsof West Virginia. Yeah, the core
of the company has been around fora long long time. But just for
my own edification, tell us aboutthe transition from the Minion to Hope Gas.
Even so, you know, Ias say, we're coming up on
our hundred and twenty fifth anniversary andduring those hundred and twenty five. The
company has lots of different owners,and most recently the company was owned by
(01:12):
Dominion Resources. Dominion Resource, youknow, for folks who don't follow the
energy space, is one of thelargest energy companies in the United States.
It's headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.It owns and I would say not every
state, but in many state itowns energy companies. And so Hope was
a small piece of a really bigentity, you know. As part of
(01:34):
that, you know, we I'llcall it the the Ulico Hearstone team that
came in to buy Hope. Wesaw West Virginia as sort of a really
gem for the future. We're obviouslyfocused on energy, focused on growing the
business, and we saw West Virginiahaving all those potentials and we felt like,
(02:00):
you know, as an owner,you know, Dominion was focused on
a lot of things, but WestVirginia wasn't one of their priorities. And
so when we acquired the company,the first thing we said was Dominion had
actually changed the name of the companyfor a short while, so it was
doing business as Dominion Energy West Virginia. So the customers bills, the people
(02:23):
who answered the phone, our trucks, the employees uniforms all set Dominion Energy,
West Virginia. And the first thingwe did is we said we're bringing
back the name Hope Right, onehundred twenty five year old company. People
know it. It's got a greatbrand here. But more importantly to that,
you know, let's say, justsort of along with the name change,
(02:43):
was that we were committed to creatinga headquarters of a company here in
West Virginia. So I'm sitting todayhere in Morgantown, West Virginia, and
I'll say the two pieces of thatwhich are really important is when we bought
the company from Dominion, all ofadministration, all of the support, customer
service, a lot of that wasdone out of Richmond, Virginia. So
(03:07):
we're bringing all those jobs into WestVirginia. For us, it's a great
opportunity. The jobs are coming here, but the people aren't. So we're
in the midst of hiring people tofill those roles here in West Virginia.
And you know, and for me, it's it's what feels good about this
is taking, you know, adeep rooted, long history company like Hope
(03:28):
Gas and hopefully putting its roots evendeeper here in West Virginia, you know,
with the headquarters and the people helpingthe customers, like the call center
all being here in West Virginia.You know, we're we're excited about,
you know, say, just reallytaking the West Virginia brand and hopefully you
know, building on it and growingwith it. So ultimately this this,
(03:51):
this sounds like all good things forthe customers. Yeah, I mean,
you know, like we're you know, we believe that. You know,
this is a a business has beenaround one hundred and twenty five years.
The my investors plan on it beingaround another one hundred twenty five years.
And how you do that, right, as you make your company more valuable
to the people you serve, Sohaving the people who answer the phone calls,
(04:15):
right, So something as simple asthat, Right, a customer has
an issue, they call the company. Historically they're talking to somebody out of
state, and that person's answering phonecalls from lots of other companies as well.
We fast forward to today and hereand hope and you know, you
have somebody sitting here in West Virginiato their only job is to help you,
(04:35):
the customer, solve your problem.And you know, more than likely
they'll know the town that you're in, they you know, they may even
know people that you know, andthere's there's a you know, a connection
there that you know, provides betterservice for us and hopefully for the customer
that's more valuable to them. Dopeople understand that with this change that there's
(04:58):
going to be opportunities and a managesto all of this. Is this something
that you've focused on as CEO.Yeah, you know, a part of
our message is that we're we believe, first of all, just I'll say,
are bringing hope to West Virginia.And the first you know, September
one was our one year anniversary,so we're you know, we're hitting the
(05:19):
ground running here. We've we've hiredover one hundred people here and for the
second part of this year, actuallythe fourth quarter, we expect to hire
another hundred people here in West Virginia. So two hundred jobs basically in the
first year, all good, familysustaining jobs, and some a lot of
them are in Morgantown, but actuallya good part of them are scattered throughout
(05:43):
the state of West Virginia where wehave operations throughout the state. So in
the last year is what is theone thing you're most proud of, you
know, I'd say that, youknow, we came here telling a story
that we can make a difference herein West Virginia. So I made a
lot of promises, right and youknow, so day one, I met
with the governor, I met withpublic service commissioners, I met with people
(06:05):
in the community, we let withyou, met with customers, and said,
we're going to do something here thatI think is special and it's going
to have an impact here in WestVirginia. And I'd say, you know,
only a year into it, wefeel like we've made meaningful impacts and
those opportunities that we were hoping todeliver on I think are greater that we
(06:26):
can have even more of an impactgoing forward. So I'm proud of that.
You know, the team that we'rebuilding here and the team that we
have here have embraced the idea thatwe can have a meaningful part in the
future of West Virginia and to makeit a brighter future than it would otherwise
be, and that we can playa meaningful part there. And we've we've
done it like we've played that partfor this first twelve months, and so
(06:48):
that gives hopefully everybody the realism thatwhat this crazy guy said to us on
day one is true, and nowwe're watching it and it builds, right
the enthusiast and for it and theideas just build from success. And so
I'd say with that question, that'swhat we're most proud of. So what
is your next focus? What isthe crazy guys focus over the next year,
(07:10):
so maybe one year, five years, ten years, what are some
of your goals? So you know, the part that get I get frustrated
within the energy space is it's it'sbecome very political on a national level.
So there's there's you listen to thepresidential debates, you listen to there are
people that some energy is bad,other energy is good. The reality is,
(07:33):
you know, we live in acountry that is rich with natural resources,
and we've had wars in my lifetimeover those natural resources when bad people
had control of those natural resources.And so we're living in a day where
you know, we've survived the pandemic. We learned a lot of things coming
(07:54):
out of that that you know,this country had let manufacturing go overseas and
a lot of stuff we're being madein China and the countries that we don't
consider necessarily our best friends. Andthe idea of bringing a lot of that
manufacturing back to this country has Ithink resonated with the average person how important
(08:15):
that is. And so for usin the energy space, we know that
as a manufacturer and as people whomake things, energy is a really important
ingredient to that. And so beingin a state like West Virginia that's rich
in energy, it's a competitive advantagefor West Virginia when we're trying to attract
i'll call it manufacturers, advanced manufacturersto build facilities in this country. And
(08:39):
you know, we had hope wantto help see more manufacturing, more advanced
manufacturing come here to the state andfor us to be the people at the
table to say we're going to haveplentiful energy, it's going to be affordable,
it's going to be environmentally responsible.All the things that you need,
we're going to deliver that are you. And by the way, there's forty
(09:01):
nine other states in this country thataren't as rich in those resources as we
are, and we think we're ina unique situation to really i'll say,
change the future of the state.You know, and for a small utility
to sit there and say bold thingsthat we're going to change the future of
the state. We're going to impactwhat's happening in this country, maybe change
(09:22):
the way people think about energy andhow important it is. All those things,
you know, makes I think usfeel bigger than we are. And
every day when you get up andyour purpose for why you come to work,
hopefully it gets bigger and more meaningfulas well. You talked about a
lot of challenges. What is yourbiggest challenges? What is your biggest challenge
(09:43):
and what do you think you wherewould you like to go with that?
How do you think you're going totackle that challenge? I think you know,
just because because we're staring at theenergy space, there's this belief that,
you know, fossil fuels are badand renewable energy is good, and
the sooner we get away from fallwill feel over to renewable that's the world's
(10:03):
going to be a better place,right And the reality of it is,
it's not the truth. Right.We in order to make car batteries,
we need fossil fuels to make thosecar batteries, in order to make the
iPhones and all the plastics that allcomes from liquids out of the natural gas
industry, right, and so weare the feedstock and the support of almost
(10:26):
everything that people use. And soto have those political discussions that says this
is bad and this is good whenpeople really don't understand how it all fits
together, that's that's a challenge.And our answer to the challenge is that
we are as a company focused onboth our residential families people that live in
(10:46):
their houses to become really valuable forthem and for businesses in particular, particularly
trying to attract business here in WestVirginia, is to be an important part
to them for their business where theycan't imagine a world without us. I
mean, our vision for Hope Guestsat some point is for every customer to
(11:07):
wake up in the morning and say, I can't imagine my world without Hope
Guests. That's that's our ultimate goalhere. In the meantime, coming up
with solutions helping people solve their energyissues, whether it's a sophisticated business or
just the average person trying to paytheir bills, all ends of the spectrum.
If we are i'll say innovative andthoughtful and how energy can be used
(11:31):
and also empathetic and you know,making sure that we have safety nets for
people that need it, sort ofall ends of that spectrum. Like ultimately,
that's that's where we need to getand we achieve that. I think
that's what people say, that's avaluable company. That's somebody I can't imagine
what the state would be like withoutit. Tell us, tell us your
(11:52):
background. You know, I've beenin the utility space a really long time.
I was born up and Berg.I ran the electric company up there
for a number of years. Iwent over to the natural gas business,
and and you know, I've justbeen a utility guy my parents. My
father is an Irish immigrant, eighthgrade education. His dream was to see
(12:15):
as kids go to school like alot of immigrants. And you know,
I've always been brought up that mymy job, my opportunity to do what
I do is a gift and it'snot something I'm entitled to. And so
I bring that I'll call it thework ethic and the idea that you know,
these are gifts that were given,not entitlements, and to treat it
(12:37):
like a gift. So is thiscrazy utility guy really want to make a
difference in the community. Is thatsomething that that is that is part of
your soul. Is that part ofyour person? Yeah, it's it's it's
who we are, and it's whothe people that work here are too,
So it's it's it's a it's acombining of like souls as you describe it.
(12:58):
And you know, the future andhow how we are seen in the
company and the impact we have andthe communities that we serve as really important
to us. And and and it'snot lost on us that you know,
everybody has their challenges in life,so we want to always be empathetic and
help people solve their problems because asa community and as an important part of
(13:22):
it, you know, that's that'sa really important part. We can't just
talk about growth and jobs and economicdevelopment and opportunities. We also have to
make sure that, you know,we're taking care of the people that that
truly need taking care of. Sotell us about the company's community involvement.
What are some organizations that you're affiliatedwith, So you know, we're we're
(13:43):
one year into it, right,so just I always tell people, remember
that, right, So we we'veyou know, I'll just talk to you
about a project that I got invitedto recently. You know, Louis county
is a high school that is asingle high school that's serves an entire county
here in West Virginia. And oneof our employees is involved down at the
(14:05):
high school and he brought a groupof us down there and said, you
know, this is a single highschool for a whole county and look at
the facilities they have, which embarrassingis maybe one way, or challenging is
another way to describe them. Andyou know, so we're we're working with
organizing a group of people that say, you know, if we believe that
(14:28):
we want to see a better futurethan our past, and we want to
help achieve a great future, youknow, making sure at an early age
that kids feel good about who theyare and where they live and their opportunities.
And a big part of that isthe support of the infrastructure. So
things like football fields and baseball fieldsand basketball you know, arenas are all
(14:50):
all important aspects to that. Andso we're we're actually working bringing a number
of people together, some resources togetherin the community to try to address and
improve I'll say, the opportunities thatkids perceive. You know, it's not
just you know that we say wehave a good education system and there'll be
jobs here, but that you know, they come to school and that they're
(15:11):
on the football team, they feelproud of the you know, the field
that they're in and the stadium thatthey're playing in front of, and it's
every kid, right, every kiddeserves that. And the disparity between facilities
is particularly at a high school level, is pretty pretty dramatic. And so
we're we see a community that I'llsay is maybe been left behind or people
(15:33):
just haven't prioritized, and we feellike that's a part we can play.
So we're actually calling on some ofthe businesses that we do work with,
businesses that we actually some of ourcustomers, to say, hey, which
you partner with us on something thatwill make a difference to the future and
make kids feel good about who theyare and where they live and then paint
(15:56):
that picture of the hope of whatwe want the state to be in the
future. And what other charities areyou involved with? You know where you
can check the box, you know, with all of the United Ways and
they'll call it the food shelters,and you know, our employees give every
weekends to supporting those those organizations.You know, I describe a utility worker
(16:18):
as a you know, basically apublic servant, you know, like a
policeman and a fireman. You know, when on a really cold day in
West Virginia, you know, whenyour gas isn't for whatever reason, getting
to your house, these guys areout in the cold, you know,
battling those weather to make sure theirneighbors are warm. And that's just who
they are. And so when youtake that as yours as you're you know,
(16:41):
you're in your soul, as yousaid earlier, and then talk about
how do you help the homeless,how do you help people who need food
and securities, all those challenges thatfamilies have. They right, it's just
intuitive for them to volunteer and notonly with their their moneys, but also
their talents well, speaking of supportingthe community, and this looks like it's
going to be a great time.Tell us a little bit about the West
(17:03):
Virginia pregame tailgate parties. Yeah,you know, so we uh, you
know, a big part of ourstory is that we want to help the
future of West Virginia. And soif you think of that, right,
what better way for us, especiallyinitially here than to develop a relationship with
the University of West Virginia and thentaking that down even further than the students
(17:26):
right. And one of the thingsthat we're pointed out to us is that
there really isn't call it a centraltailgate for students for football games. And
my first day here, I learnedvery quickly that college football is incredibly important
here in West Virginia. I've said, it's it's right below religion, right
(17:47):
and maybe even above it, dependingon who you are. So we had
this idea that we could host hereat our headquarters here in Morgantown in the
parking lot a tailgate for the studentsthroughout the season two hours before the game
in front of our building. We'regoing to have entertainment, We're going to
have you know, food, refreshments, it'll be a nice secure area,
(18:11):
all the amenities of the Port ofJohn's and making sure everybody's safe there.
But you know, it's our wayof connecting with the students and as you
said, you know, also supportingthem to enjoy themselves, but also to
feel good about, hopefully the futureof the state here in West Virginia.
Morgan O'Brien, CEO of Hope Gasand a CEO you should know Margan,
(18:33):
thank you so much. I appreciatehaving this time. Thank you. This
has been the CEO You Should Knowpodcast, showcasing businesses that are driving our
regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's commitmentto the communities we serve. I'm Johnny
Hartwell, thank you so much forlistening.
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