SMUD plans new substation in the Railyards to meet Sacramento’s growing energy needs
EDUCATION STUDENTS DEPEND ON CALFRESH BENEFITS. WELL, IF MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS HAPPENING IN THE SACRAMENTO RAILYARDS, MORE CONSTRUCTION ON THE WAY, AND SMUD WILL BE STARTING ITS OWN NEW PROJECT TO KEEP UP WITH DEMAND, THE TEAM IS WORKING ON A NEW SUBSTATION, JUST ONE OF HUNDREDS IN THE CITY THAT SMUD USES TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON FOR ITS CUSTOMERS, AND SMUD GAVE KCRA THREE AN EXCLUSIVE BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT HOW THE COMPANY SAYS IT’S TRYING TO STAY AHEAD OF THE EVER CHANGING ELECTRICAL NEEDS. HERE. OBVIOUSLY, TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING, POPULATION IS CHANGING. HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO KEEP UP? WELL, WE PLAN IN 20 YEAR CYCLES, SO I DON’T WANT TO IMPLY THAT IT’S EASY, BUT WE GET WAY, WAY AHEAD OF IT, SMUD SAYS ITS ONE SUBSTATION COULD SERVE MORE THAN 10,000 CUSTOMERS, BUT THERE ARE ALSO SUBSTATIONS YOU DON’T SEE, LIKE THE ONES THAT ARE ACTUALLY BELOW GROUND. AND COMING UP TONIGHT AT 11, SMUD IS GOING TO TAKE US UNDER THE SACRAMENTO CITY STREETS TO SHOW US HOW THE UNDERGROUND SYSTEM WORKS AND HOW THEY’RE TRYING TO KEEP CUSTOMERS BILLS
SMUD plans new substation in the Railyards to meet Sacramento’s growing energy needs
SMUD is planning to build a new substation in Sacramento’s downtown railyards to keep up with the city’s growing energy needs. The substation, planned for later this year, is one of hundreds that SMUD uses to maintain electricity for its customers. Frankie McDermott, SMUD’s chief operating officer, said the utility plans in 20-year cycles to keep up with anticipated electrical demands. SMUD says one substation can serve more than 10,000 customers, but there are also substations you don’t see, such as ones below ground. Coming up Thursday at 11 p.m., SMUD will take viewers under Sacramento city streets to show how its underground system works and how the utility is trying to keep bills low. Watch on KCRA 3. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
SMUD is planning to build a new substation in Sacramento’s downtown railyards to keep up with the city’s growing energy needs.
The substation, planned for later this year, is one of hundreds that SMUD uses to maintain electricity for its customers.
Frankie McDermott, SMUD’s chief operating officer, said the utility plans in 20-year cycles to keep up with anticipated electrical demands.
SMUD says one substation can serve more than 10,000 customers, but there are also substations you don’t see, such as ones below ground.
Coming up Thursday at 11 p.m., SMUD will take viewers under Sacramento city streets to show how its underground system works and how the utility is trying to keep bills low. Watch on KCRA 3.
Kenya Airways’ chief operating officer said the airline was looking to deepen international partnerships as part of its growth plans.
Speaking at an aviation event in Kigali, George Kamal said Kenya Airways — the fourth-largest airline on the continent by available seats and miles covered — is partnering with Qatar Airways to increase its number of flights to and from Doha, Aviation Week Network reported. The Kenyan airline is looking for additional partners in West and southern Africa after a deal with South African Airways fell through earlier this month.
Cooperation within Africa’s airspace remains a long-term challenge. Airlines must adhere to national restrictions, which limit commercial flights between their home nation and other countries. The result is that a large number of airlines rely on foreign operators and connections in hubs like Paris, Doha, and Istanbul for intra-African journeys as well as for the upkeep of their fleet.
A chart showing the total passenger capacity for flights starting in Africa, by destination, for Sept. 2024.
Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks at a press conference on June 5, 2025 at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday appointed three officials to his administration, all of whom he has previously named to other positions in Oklahoma state government.
Stitt appointed Donelle Harder as Oklahoma Secretary of State, David Ostrowe as chief operating officer and Dustin Hilliary as his senior advisor.
“We successfully launched this administration by bringing a fresh set of eyes from Oklahoma’s business community, and we will finish the same way,” Stitt said in a statement. “These three outstanding Oklahomans bring diverse strengths: Dustin’s trusted leadership and negotiation prowess, David’s operational acumen, and Donelle’s strategic vision.”
The appointments follow the resignations of Josh Cockroft, who serves as secretary of state and Stitt’s chief policy advisor, and Rick Rose, the head of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services and Oklahoma’s chief operating officer. Cockcroft’s resignation is effective Oct. 2 while Rose plans to depart Sept. 26.
Donelle Harder is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)
Harder previously served as Stitt’s senior advisor and deputy Secretary of State and worked as his spokesperson and campaign manager. She also previously worked as former U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe’s spokesperson.
In the private sector, she sold her regional public relations and marketing firm to Pinkston in 2022, and she became one of the company’s senior vice presidents.
“I’m honored to serve as Secretary of State and support Governor Stitt’s administration again,” Harder said in a statement. “I look forward to sharpening our strategic approach and ensuring this administration remains effective and focused on delivering good government for the people of Oklahoma.”
Her appointment is effective Oct. 1.
Ostrowe will return to Stitt’s administration as the chief operating officer and secretary to “drive cabinet coordination and support agency directors.”
David Ostrowe is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)
He currently serves as president and CEO of O&M Restaurant Group leading brand expansions across states.
During Stitt’s first term, Ostrowe served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Digital Transformation and Administration. He was indicted by former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter in late 2020 for allegedly bribing a state official. Ostrowe was accused of threatening to cut funding from the state Tax Commission if commissioners didn’t waive penalties and interests on a tax debt.
Current Attorney General Gentner Drummond dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning they can’t be refiled, and apologized to Ostrowe on behalf of the state after he took office. He said Ostrowe should not have been indicted and did nothing wrong.
“In Governor Stitt’s first administration, we worked with passion to deliver digital transformation and make government more efficient and transparent,” Ostrowe said in a statement. “I am honored to return as COO to help finish that mission and continue advancing good government for all Oklahomans.”
Dustin Hilliary is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)
Hilliary, Stitt’s new senior advisor and chief negotiator, also serves as the vice chair of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. It was not immediately clear if he would continue serving in both roles.
He is co-CEO of Hilliary Communications, which provides telephone and broadband service to customers in Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa. Hilliary is also co-publisher of the Hilliary Media Group, a media holding company, and operates a real estate development company.
“It is an honor to serve Oklahoma and to work alongside Governor Stitt in his final term to advance policies with the Legislature that put our state on a strong path today and for future generations,” Hilliary said in a statement.
The salaries of all three appointees were not immediately provided by the Governor’s Office.
When Donald Trump first took office, he put a premium on what he called “central casting” hires—people with impressive résumés who matched his image of an ideal administration official. Yes, he brought along his share of Steve Bannons and Michael Flynns. But there was also James Mattis, the decorated four-star general who took over the Defense Department, and Gary Cohn, the Goldman Sachs chief operating officer who was appointed head of the National Economic Council, and Rex Tillerson, who left one of the world’s most profitable international conglomerates to become secretary of state.
Explore the January/February 2024 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Trump seemed positively giddy that all of these important people were suddenly willing to work for him. And although his populist supporters lamented the presence of so many swamp creatures in his administration, establishment Washington expressed pleasant surprise at the picks. A consensus had formed that what the incoming administration needed most was “adults in the room.” To save the country from ruin, the thinking went, reasonable Republicans had a patriotic duty to work for Trump if asked. Many of them did.
Don’t expect it to happen again. The available supply of serious, qualified people willing to serve in a Trump administration has dwindled since 2017. After all, the so-called adults didn’t fare so well in their respective rooms. Some quit in frustration or disgrace; others were publicly fired by the president. Several have spent their post–White House lives fielding congressional subpoenas and getting indicted. And after seeing one Trump term up close, vanishingly few of them are interested in a sequel: This past summer, NBC News reported that just four of Trump’s 44 Cabinet secretaries had endorsed his current bid.
Even if mainstream Republicans did want to work for him again, Trump is unlikely to want them. He’s made little secret of the fact that he felt burned by many in his first Cabinet. This time around, according to people in Trump’s orbit, he would prioritize obedience over credentials. “I think there’s going to be a very concerted, calculated effort to ensure that the people he puts in his next administration—they don’t have to share his worldview exactly, but they have to implement it,” Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesperson, told me.
What would this look like in practice? Predicting presidential appointments nearly a year before the election is a fool’s errand, especially with a candidate as mercurial as this one. And, whether for reasons of low public opinion or ongoing legal jeopardy, some of Trump’s likely picks might struggle to get confirmed (expect a series of contentious hearings). But the names currently circulating in MAGA world offer a glimpse at the kind of people Trump could gravitate toward.
One Trump-world figure with a record of deference to the boss is Stephen Miller. As a speechwriter and policy adviser, Miller managed to endure while so many of his colleagues flamed out in part because he was satisfied with being a staffer instead of a star. He was also fully aligned with the president on his signature issue: immigration. Inside the White House, Miller championed some of the administration’s most draconian measures, including the Muslim travel ban and the family-separation policy. In a second Trump term, some expect Miller to get a job that will give him significant influence over immigration policy—perhaps head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or even secretary of homeland security. Given Miller’s villainous reputation in Democratic circles, however, he might have a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate. If that happens, some think White House chief of staff might be a good consolation prize.
For secretary of state, one likely candidate is Richard Grenell. Before Trump appointed him ambassador to Germany in 2018, Grenell was best-known as a right-wing foreign-policy pundit and an inexhaustible Twitter troll. He brought his signature bellicosity to Berlin, hectoring journalists and government officials on Twitter, and telling a Breitbart London reporter early in his tenure that he planned to use his position to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe.” (He had to walk back the comment after some in Germany interpreted it as a call for far-right regime change.)
Grenell’s undiplomatic approach to diplomacy exasperated German officials and thrilled Trump, who reportedly described him as an ambassador who “gets it.” Grenell has spent recent years performing his loyalty as a Trump ally and, according to one source, privately building his case for the secretary-of-state role.
One job that Trump will be especially focused on getting right is attorney general. He believes that both of the men who held this position during his term—Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr—were guilty of grievous betrayal. Since then, Trump has been charged with 91 felony counts across four separate criminal cases—evidence, he claims, of a historic “political persecution.” (He has pleaded not guilty in all cases.) Trump has pledged to use the Justice Department to visit revenge on his persecutors if he returns to the White House.
“The notion of the so-called independence of the Department of Justice needs to be consigned to the ash heap of history,” says Paul Dans, who served in the Office of Personnel Management under Trump and now leads an effort by the Heritage Foundation to recruit conservative appointees for the next Republican administration. To that end, Trump allies have floated a range of loyalists for attorney general, including Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Josh Hawley; former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi; and Jeffrey Clark, formerly one of Trump’s assistant attorneys general, who was indicted in Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election (the charges are still pending).
Vivek Ramaswamy—the fast-talking entrepreneur running in the Republican presidential primary as of this writing—is also expected to get a top post in the administration. Ramaswamy has praised Trump on the campaign trail and positioned himself as the natural heir to the former president. Trump has responded to the flattery in kind, publicly praising his opponent as a “very, very, very intelligent person.” Some have even speculated that Ramaswamy could be Trump’s pick for vice president.
One source close to Ramaswamy told me that a Trump adviser had recently asked him what job the candidate might want in a future administration. After thinking about it, the source suggested ambassador to the United Nations, reasoning that he’s a “good talker.” The Trump adviser said he’d keep it in mind, though it’s worth noting that Ramaswamy’s lack of support for Ukraine and his suggestion that Russia be allowed to keep some of the territory it has seized could lead to confirmation trouble.
Beyond the high-profile posts, the Trump team may have more jobs to fill in 2025 than a typical administration does. Dans and his colleagues at Heritage are laying the groundwork for a radical politicization of the federal civilian workforce. If they get their way, the next Republican president will sign an executive order eliminating civil-service protections for up to 50,000 federal workers, effectively making the people in these roles political appointees. Rank-and-file budget wonks, lawyers, and administrators working in dozens of agencies would be reclassified as Schedule F employees, and the president would be able to fire them at will, with or without cause. These fired civil servants’ former posts could be left empty—or filled with Trump loyalists. To that end, Heritage has begun to put together a roster of thousands of pre-vetted potential recruits. “What we’re really talking about is a major renovation to government,” Dans told me.
Trump actually signed an executive order along these lines in the final months of his presidency, but it was reversed by his successor. On the campaign trail, Trump has vowed to reinstate it with the goal of creating a more compliant federal workforce for himself. “Either the deep state destroys America,” he has declared, “or we destroy the deep state.”
This article appears in the January/February 2024 print edition with the headline “Loyalists, Lapdogs, and Cronies.”
Kinara Capital aims to disburse about Rs 800 crore in loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the current financial year in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, according to Thirunavukkarasu R, Chief Operating Officer.
The Bengaluru based fintech start-up has disbursed Rs 1,200 crore in advances so far in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, at an interest rate ranging from 22 to 26 per cent per annum, he said at a press conference here on Tuesday.
The company recorded 190 per cent year-on-year growth in Assets Under Management in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2022-23. Its financial services had generated 16,000 new jobs in the two Telugu states, according to Thirunavukkarasu.
Kate Burke, the CFO, and chief operating officer at AllianceBernstein, always had aspirations to be in a C-suite role, but her road was unexpected.
I sat down with Burke to ask her perspective on the economy and to discuss her journey to becoming finance chief. Burke was appointed CFO at the global investment management and research firm AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) in July, succeeding interim CFO Bill Siemers, who returned to his prior role as corporate controller and chief accounting officer. As CFO and COO, she oversees aspects including finance, strategy, operations, corporate communications, legal and compliance, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, and corporate citizenship, to name a few.
Both researchers and many CFOs I’ve spoken with describe the evolving finance chief role as including a heightened focus on operational change, business strategy, and employees. Burke has a resume with experience in all of these areas.
A focus on talent
One of her first jobs was in investor relations at Tommy Hilfiger, says Burke, who earned an MBA at Northwestern University. She joined Bernstein Research in 2004 in institutional sales, which would eventually lead to becoming the head of human capital and chief talent officer in 2016 for AllianceBernstein.
“It was really a remarkable transition point for me,” Burke says. She worked with talent across the firm in the areas of investment, distribution, sales, and operations, and kept in mind “the financial acumen that I had established at Bernstein Research,” she says.
An example? Burke would talk to the human capital team about “the concept of a return on invested capital, and I said, we have to think about the return on invested time,” she explained. The goal was to create a mindset of: “Every time you ask a person to do something, are you asking them to do something that creates value?” she says.
Kate Burke, CFO and COO at AllianceBernstein
Courtesy of AllianceBernstein
How do you measure return on invested time? The process is more conceptual than a precise science, Burke says. They consistently used surveys to track engagement. “Are they getting purpose out of their work?” she explains. “Do they understand the firm’s strategies? Are you being supported by the team in your business?” Her team reviewed the findings along with retention metrics, Burke says.
At an asset management firm, the ability to “align your people and the organizational strengths with your strategic initiatives to drive long-term success” is essential, she says.
Burke moved on to the chief administrative officer role in June 2019 and then became COO in July 2020. “I was able to leverage the experiences of knowing all of the talent and the positives and challenges that existed throughout the organization,” she says.
One major project was the four-year endeavor of moving AllianceBernstein’s corporate headquarters from New York to Nashville. The office opened in May. As COO, “running the day to day is part of it,” Burke says. “But a lot of it goes into planning for the future.” She also served as head of wealth management before taking on the CFO role.
Asking the right questions
Burke says she’s had “a very strong mentor in Seth Bernstein, our CEO.” In taking on expanded roles over the past 18 years, “I was inheriting very strong teams that had deep subject matter expertise,” she says. Burke’s number one learning tool? “The willingness to recognize what I don’t know and ask questions,” she says.
The idea is, “‘Look, you know, more than I do, there’s a reason why you’re the subject matter expert,’” she says. Burke’s questions started from “a 10,000-foot level and then I’m going to work my way down into the details,” she says. Her questioning, in turn, helped team members to keep the business strategy in perspective, she says. “In my capacity, from human capital, to COO to CFO, I’ve worked very closely with our finance department,” Burke says.
Her priorities in stepping into the CFO as the COO? “I took over [the CFO role] mid-year, in a year that’s been challenging for the markets to say the least,” Burke says. Managing investments that “we were committed to make from a strategic standpoint against the day to day business, and understanding the impact it was going to have on our operating leverage, was paramount,” she says.
Regarding the economy, “I think we’re going to continue to be in a challenging inflationary environment, which creates a higher probability of a recession going into next year,” Burke says. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing somewhat being priced into the markets now is that concern. We still generally believe you could see more Fed action. Between now and certainly November will be an interesting time to see what comes through.”
“The Pursuit of Effective Workplace Learning,” a study by Emergn, a global digital business services firm, gauges the signifance of learning and development (L&D) programs in the battle for talent. Workplace training can be a useful tool to recruit and retain top talent in an organization, the research found. More than half (55%) of professionals stated that learning and development (L&D) programs increased job satisfaction and employee morale. Also 75% said that strong workplace training would have a high impact on their decision to remain with an employer instead of seeking other opportunities. Emergn partnered with independent research firm Researchscape to survey more than 1,200 professionals from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Courtesy of Emergn
Going deeper
The 2022 “Women in the Workplace” report from McKinsey & Company in partnership with LeanIn.Org released this morning, found that more women leaders are leaving their companies. For every woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company, according to the report. Almost half (43%) of women leaders are burned out, compared to 31% of men at their level. A “broken rung” at the first step up to manager continues holding women back, the research found. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry level to manager, just 87 women are promoted, and just 82 women of color are promoted. Companies are also at risk of losing young women. Fifty-eight percent of women under 30 said advancement has become more important to them over the past two years, compared to 31% of women leaders. The findings are based on data from 330 companies and and a survey of more than 40,000 employees.
Leaderboard
Edith Hsu was named the first-ever CFO at PowerToFly, a diversity recruiting and retention platform. Hsu brings over 20 years of finance experience to the company, having worked with Fortune 500 companies and startups to scale operations and velocity. Before joining PowerToFly, she served as VP of finance at Kigen, which she spun out from Arm, a technology provider of processor IP. Hsu has also held multiple senior finance positions at growth-stage and venture-backed startups. Amy Kim was named PowerToFly’s first chief revenue officer. Kim built her career in B2B tech and digital media across tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Siebel Systems. Her work at early-stage companies has focused on scaling sales teams as they expand go-to-market strategies.
Robert Leibrock was named SVP and CFO at Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions. Carolyn Nash, who was appointed to the SVP and CFO role in April 2022, has been named the company’s SVP and COO, effective immediately. Nash will continue reporting to Red Hat’s president and CEO Matt Hicks. Leibrock will report directly to Nash. Leibrock brings 20 years of experience in both the financial and operational space to Red Hat. He has spent much of his career at IBM, most recently serving as assistant controller. He also played a key role in IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, responsible for the overall project office, finance and operations functions, and driving offering synergies, according to the company.
Overheard
“Given dismal productivity growth, likely caused by quiet quitting, wage inflation will have to come down significantly if sustained months near 2% inflation is to be attained. I do not understand the basis for believing this is likely without a meaningful recession.”
—Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who previously served as president of Harvard University and chief economist at the World Bank, tweeted on Monday his concern that “quiet quitters” are hurting U.S. worker productivity, Fortune reported.
