NEWS RELEASE
PLATTE RIVER POWER AUTHORITY
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After an extensive national search, Platte River Power Authority (Platte River) recently completed its senior leadership team by naming Eddie Gutiérrez as the organization’s chief strategy officer (CSO).
“Eddie is a compassionate strategist and communicator and brings decades of advocacy and community engagement experience to Platte River,” said Jason Frisbie, general manager and chief executive officer of Platte River. “He and his team are critical to the ongoing collaboration with our owner communities and the customers they serve to communicate how we will achieve our noncarbon energy future by 2030.”
Eddie Gutiérrez’s 20 years of nonprofit and utility activism will help strengthen a unified voice and collaborative vision for Platte River’s owner communities of Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland to achieve its energy transition.
Valuing the importance of public power alongside Platte River’s owner communities, Gutiérrez will lead the organization’s business strategies and development, overseeing human resources, safety, communications and marketing, community engagement and government affairs, and leading Platte River’s overall external affairs advocacy.
The role of the CSO also fosters regional partnerships and collaboration, which will be essential as our owner communities come together to help inform and educate our customers in the region on how we will achieve the Resource Diversification Policy.
“Speaking from one voice, our communities have an opportunity to be a national leader in actually transforming the energy landscape, edging closer to 100% noncarbon energy resources ahead of most electric utilities nationwide while maintaining reliability and affordability for our communities in Northern Colorado,” said Gutiérrez.
“Investments to decarbonize our energy resources is a commitment and responsibility we take seriously. Our owner communities believe in safe, reliable, environmentally responsible and financially sustainable energy that enables the economic vibrancy and innovation in the region. We are well-positioned to achieve our energy goals as advocates of public and community-owned power.”
During his two decades of experience, Gutiérrez developed and managed brand and creative initiatives, leading strategic visions with a variety of organizations across the United States.
Most recently, Gutiérrez was vice president of strategic communications, customer care and community engagement for El Paso Electric, a vertically integrated investor-owned utility based in El Paso, Texas. He was also founder and managing director of the Gutiérrez Group LLC, a marketing and public relations firm specializing in consumer and public affairs.
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Gutiérrez holds a Master of Public and International Affairs from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.
Platte River Power Authority is a not-for-profit, community-owned public power utility that generates and delivers safe, reliable, environmentally responsible and financially sustainable energy and services to Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland, Colorado, for delivery to their utility customers. For more information, visit prpa.org.
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