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Author: Savannah Tranchell, Energy Northwest

As a corporal in the U.S. Army, Andy Black learned a valuable lesson about leading.

“The main function of a leader is education,” Black said. It was a lesson enforced to him by one of his mentors, and when the full force of that lesson sunk in, Black leaned into it.

“When I got it, I said, ‘I’m all in on this,’ and I got a degree in adult education,” he said. “Learning how to effectively educate, or teach, somebody something is an intricate part of being a leader. If you can’t do that, it’s going to be so much more challenging.”

Today, Black is a general manager at Columbia Generating Station overseeing Operations Support — which includes Security Operations, Security Training, Access, Fitness for Duty, Performance Improvement, Industrial Safety, Emergency Preparedness, Regulatory Affairs and Organizational Effectiveness. He continues to approach his role from an educational standpoint.

“The best thing you can do for anyone that you are leading is to be honest with them,” he said. “Don’t make them guess what you’re saying. But you also can’t just leave a grenade on their desk, pull the pin and walk away. You have to tell them what they need to know, help them determine what they need to fix, and guide them through how to fix it.”

A career problem solver

Originally from Arizona, Black served in the Army for three years, working as military police. Before leaving on his last overseas tour, he was offered a position with Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station as a security officer.

“It was one of those deals where you’re excited for a minute, but wonder, will that really happen?” Black remembered. “But 15 months later I came back, and I called the guy, and he still had a job for me.”

He found his military skills translated nicely to the nuclear industry, particularly an emphasis on rigor and leadership. They are skills that continue to be valued at EN, which has been recognized for many years as being a military-friendly employer.

A unique aspect of his time at Palo Verde was twice a year outages. Each spring and fall, Black would leave his role in security and work with the Maintenance team on feedwater valves.

“That work gave me some really helpful insights,” Black said. He applies those insights during Columbia’s outages. During Refueling and Maintenance Outage 25, he served as the night outage manager. His passion for education shows up there, too.

“I’ve never felt like I was ashamed to not know something,” Black said. “Don’t be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room. If I want to know something, I’m going to ask. And over time you learn, ‘Well, that wasn’t a great question, but maybe if I ask it in this way I’ll get a better answer.’”

After 21 years at Palo Verde, Black transferred to Florida Power and Light for a year, then went to work for Xcel Energy, where he worked with Mark Reddemann. Reddemann became CEO at Energy Northwest in 2010.

“A few years after he’d left Xcel, I got a phone call from Mark. He said, ‘I need you to do me a favor. Come up here and be a general manager for Security and EP.’” Black said. “I said, ‘Mark, that’s a big favor!’ But I loved working for him, and I knew Brad Sawatzke as well. I really liked their leadership style, and the timing was right for me to make a change.”

Black joined the EN team in 2012, one of several outside leaders brought in by Reddemann to change the trajectory of Columbia.

His passion for education has made Black a natural choice for organizations that are looking to make changes. And he has pride in his work and in the accomplishments of his team.

“I’ve spent a lot of my career working with departments who were facing challenges,” Black said. “Like the rest of Columbia, security was facing some performance issues when I got here. But today, I would argue that they are the best performing department on-site.”

A team player

Away from Columbia, Black enjoys time with his wife, Rhonda, their two children – Andrew, 28, and Brittney, 33 – and granddaughter Hazel, who will be 3 this summer. Rhonda was Black’s high school sweetheart and the couple is preparing to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

He’s passionate about his infamously big truck, metal working and hockey.

While growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Black learned to play ice hockey. “I played until I was about 19 or 20, and then I got married and life got in the way,” he said.

When he moved to Tri-Cities, Black and his wife began attending Tri-City Americans games and heard about the adult hockey league.

“My wife said, ‘Why don’t you go buy some skates and go skate?’” he said. So after 35 years, Black got back on the ice. “That was six years ago, and I’ve been playing all year long since then, until this past year.”

On the ice, Black is a defenseman, blocking shots as part of the Tri-City Adult Hockey League. The sport is physically demanding but offers a mental escape and the team environment reminds him of his military days.

“I love being on a team,” he said. “You’re looking out for each other. But I also love the physicality of it and the competition.”

An eye for the future

Black is excited about what EN’s future holds for his departments. There are several opportunities on the horizon. The biggest one being the potential for an advanced nuclear plant at Site 1.

“At some point, there’s the possibility that every single department I’m responsible for flips and goes from being a plant department to being a corporate department, with multiple sites to support,” Black said. “That comes with a difficult set of responsibilities.”

Black has experience with those types of shifts and the challenges of implementing new programs while keeping the current ones running smoothly.

“Starting up a plant is a completely different exercise,” he said. “But it’s an exciting opportunity, and I look forward to my people having that chance. It’s the sort of thing that could possibly never happen in your lifetime, but it looks like a lot of them are going to get the experience.”

In the meantime, he’s keeping his crews focused on excellence and continuous improvement.

“The challenge is always how do we stay forward looking and creative enough to constantly push our organization on an upward trajectory and never level out,” Black said. “We can’t stagnate. That’s our biggest challenge.”