Negocios Now

www.negociosnow.com 10 Octubre 2019 NegociosNow NegociosNow By Rita Rousseau J oann Ornelas-Bauer took a roundabout route to her blue-collar career as presi- dent of Dynamic Utility Solu- tions LLC, a certified minority- and woman-owned electrical services contractor. As a girl in Mission Viejo, Cali- fornia, Joann Ornelas dreamed of becoming a doctor. She took the first step, earning a biol- ogy degree at the University of California at Davis, but then had a change of heart. Bypassing medical school, she jumped at a chance to become a hazardous waste cleanup specialist for the state of California. "They were training cleanup crews for oil that had been spilled along the coast," she says. "It was a great opportunity to develop profes- sional skills." Within a few years, Bauer took those skills to the private sector as an environmental sci- entist with the engineering and construction firm Fluor Daniel. "I was traveling around the U.S. doing different types of hazard- ous waste cleanup," she says. "But I wanted more." She paused her career to pick up an MBA at Pepperdine University, then was lured to Chicago by a Fluor colleague who had moved on to ComEd. Working at the utility proved to be more educational than she could have dreamed. In 2000, when ComEd's parent merged with energy company PECO to form Exelon, Bauer was tapped to work on business process improvement planning. Because of her background in environmental audits, she was then asked to establish an audit department at ComEd. She was promoted again to construc- tion manager, and two years later became a performance improvement manager for Exelon. Looking for new challenges, Bauer struck out on her own as a consultant for Comcast, then became an operations director for Pennsylvania electrical util- ity PPL, managing the largest expansion of transmission lines in its history. Then, a ComEd colleague— Robert Wiggs, a former line- man—persuaded her to come back to Chicago and establish her own business. She's now president and CEO of Dynamic Utility Solutions; he's the chief operating officer. Dynamic Utility Solutions currently has just one custom- An Electrifying Career Building a Safety Culture at a ComEd Contractor er: ComEd. "We work as a con- tractor of choice for overhead distribution, directional boring and vacuum excavation," Bauer explains. "We replace old elec- trical poles, relocate electrical facilities, dig up old electrical cables and install new cables, add new electric lines in growth areas. We have directional bore work in spring and summer. We've been working pretty much around the clock since May." Bauer brings to her com- pany two particular passions. One is a safety culture. "Elec- trical utilities are a high-risk industry," she points out. "My partner and I talked through the dangers and explored what difference we can make with a relentless focus on hazard awareness." The process? "We created our own job-specific safety audit," Bauer says. "We have our own safety rulebook, customized with practical input from the linemen." The company created a safety audit phone app, shared its safety procedures with other ComEd contractors, and helped Locals 9 and 196 of the Internation- al Brotherhood of Electrical Workers develop a safety train- ing program. Bauer's other passion is a commitment to diversity. A third of her employees are female and a quarter are Hispanic. That's not typical industry-wide. Bauer acknowledges that a career as an electrician or electrical engineer can be a hard sell: "It's a tough 24-7 job, and there can be a lot of stress." To help create the next gen- eration of industry workers, Bauer visits middle schools, offers mentoring and intern- ships to high school students and makes confidence-building presentations in Latino com- munities. Dynamic Utility Solu- tions trucks show up frequent- ly at schools and community spaces "just so the people can see what their father or uncle does for a living," Bauer says. "And we have an annual family- and-friends day at our office. Employees attract new recruits, and that grows employment within their communities. You can sustain a great livelihood with these jobs." "W e have our own safety rulebook, customized with practical input from the linemen."

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