COLUMBUS: American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) announced today appointments to key positions, prompted by pending retirements.
Marcy Steckman has been named AMP chief financial officer (CFO) upon the retirement of long-time CFO Robert Trippe in July 2016. Trippe has served as AMP CFO since 1991 and his retirement was announced last year.
Rachel Gerrick and Lisa McAlister have been named co-general counsels to replace John Bentine, effective upon his previously announced retirement in January 2017. Bentine has served as AMP general counsel since 1981. Gerrick will be general counsel for corporate affairs and McAlister will be general counsel for regulatory affairs.
Steckman currently serves as AMP vice president of accounting and chief accounting officer. She joined the AMP staff in 2013 and is responsible for asset and liability management; and management oversight of all finance, treasury, cash management, financial reporting member billing and budgeting functions. She manages eight financial statement audits, three quarterly reviews and the relationship with independent auditors, $6 billion in project financing debt obligations and $1.4 billion in annual revenues. She has held financial leadership positions with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., where she served as the positions of senior director-Finance Nationwide Bank and director of corporate finance. She previously worked with Huntington National Bank, holding several positions including vice president of finance and accounting; and American Electric Power/Ohio Power Company, serving as financial and rate analyst. Steckman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Akron and is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Ohio.
“We established benchmarks and did a national search to fill the position of CFO,” said AMP President & CEO Marc Gerken. “Marcy rose above in this process and was the unanimous choice of the interview team. She has a great deal of experience and is well-deserving of this promotion. Additionally, the Board, John and I have been working on succession planning for the general counsel position since John came in-house in 2012.”
Gerrick joined AMP in 2012 as deputy general counsel. Since then, she has had responsibility for a wide variety of AMP legal matters, including construction, project financing, procurement, real estate, litigation oversight and employment matters. She has been an integral part of the teams working to expand AMP’s hydroelectric fleet and bring new solar generation to AMP’s member communities. Prior to AMP, she was an assistant to Ohio Attorney General DeWine, in the Business Counsel Section, where she handled transactional and compliance matters for the state. Gerrick has a background in commercial real estate law, and practiced with national law firms in Chicago and Columbus. She holds a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in economics and history from Emory University and a law degree from University of Virginia.
McAlister came to AMP in 2012 as deputy general counsel FERC/RTO affairs. In this position she has coordinated AMP’s regulatory efforts in terms of transmission and market access through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and RTO affairs with both the Mid Continent ISO and PJM Interconnection. McAlister also works with AMP’s power supply and planning groups to negotiate power supply agreements with third-party suppliers and to ensure power supply arrangements on behalf of members are reasonable and in accordance with law. She also monitors actions at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and state public utilities commissions in the nine-state AMP footprint that could potentially impact the organization or its membership. She has been active nationally serving as vice chair and the current chair of the American Public Power Association (APPA) Legal Section and serves on the PJM Board Nominating Committee and Liaison Committee representing the Electric Distributor Sector. Previously she was senior counsel at the Columbus based Bricker & Eckler law firm and served as counsel to the Ohio Manufacturing Association (OMA) and the OMA Energy Group. McAlister also held the position of partner elect with the firm of McNees Wallace & Nurick, representing industrial customers in energy matters. She holds a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in political science and philosophy from Elon University and a law degree from The Ohio State University.
Gerken said, “Adding Lisa and Rachel in 2012 has allowed them the opportunity to work closely with John and our outside law firms and to better understand AMP’s legal complexities, our organization and our members, to add to their already impressive resumes. Their work at AMP has had a positive impact and their promotion will benefit us greatly. The AMP Board of Trustees was actively involved in the process for filling both the general counsel and CFO positions and we are confident this will allow a seamless transition moving forward.”
Bentine and Trippe will both be available as consultants for the organization after their retirements.
View official news release