At NISC, we have always taken succession planning very seriously. Each January, the Vice President group and I update a comprehensive matrix that identifies at least three possible candidates for every team lead manager senior manager vice president and the CEO of NISC.

The succession matrix is presented to the NISC Board of Directors at our January strategic planning session. This valuable exercise helps us to accomplish several objectives.

The first, is to identify a successor in the event of a departure or a retirement for every supervisor here at NISC.

The second purpose is to identify those areas in our organization where we need to initiate development plans for those designated employees. In other words, the employee identified as a possible successor isn't quite ready. They may be missing certain skills, experience, or the abilities that they need, and they need some assistance to be strengthened in those areas. So we put together a comprehensive development plan for that employee to help them move closer to the next career opportunity.

And the final reason we go through succession planning is to identify and coach those employees that are included in the succession plan. We want them to understand the level of confidence that we have in them and the potential we believe that they have to take the next step in their career eventually.

Now, with the departure of Jasper, we turn to that succession plan. It was an early morning conversation with Susan Imm, then NISC Manager of Utility Business Development and Sales. In the succession plan, Susan had been designated as the successor for Jasper. When I asked her if she would be willing to assume the responsibilities of the interim Vice President of Member & Industry I was relieved when her response to my request was "Vern, absolutely, If you feel that I can bring value to NISC I'm all in."

Susan's reply produced a great deal of relief for the vice president group and me as this is such a critical position in our organization. We knew that we had to act decisively to provide the appropriate leadership for our employees in the division and so as not to disrupt our relationship with both our existing and prospective members.

Susan has 25 years of experience in the utility software industry, She has led the utility sales team here at NISC for over six years, and she has demonstrated not only her effectiveness, as an integral part of growing NISC pipeline of new business, but more importantly her actions have demonstrated the effective and sincere way in which she has embraced the values and the culture of our organization.

In her interim role, she was quickly and confidently recognized as she became an effective and trusted participant in our Vice President deliberations. In this case, our succession planning efforts identified a candidate in whom we have full confidence that has the required experience, skills, and most important values to step into this position. In her short time as interim Susan has demonstrated why she had been identified as a possible successor.

I am so pleased to announce that we have decided to remove the interim part of her title and that she has also been selected as a member not only of our Vice President group but also of NISC's Strategy Committee.

At NISC, we have a great tradition of promoting from within and providing career opportunities for our employees. The selection of Susan as Vice President of Member & Industry continues that important tradition.

With this decision behind us, we will now begin the process of posting for Susan's former position, the Manager of Utility Sales and will start the interview process shortly.

Please help me in congratulating Susan Imm.

Thank you. I appreciate you,

Vern