Gas Utility Fundamentals + Insights – Puget Sound Energy – Virtual (Oct 17-18)

Eric Christenson brings 20 years’ industry experience and an inextinguishable energy for new ideas to the Western Energy Institute team.

In his role as Director of Program Curriculum + Engagement, Mr. Christenson works to ensure key industry information and education are available to all WEI Members and others in the energy business. He leads a team that provides nearly seventy courses annually to thousands of industry professionals. He also supports overall Member engagement and his teammates with his professional background in database marketing experience, analytics, and business consulting.

Mr. Christenson joined WEI after a wonderful career at Portland General Electric. While at PGE he developed and managed the company’s Enterprise Risk Management program and his ability to grasp complicated, interconnected opportunities brought him to work with several other areas including operations benchmarking, regulatory affairs, fleet services, AMI, and finance.

Prior to joining PGE, Mr. Christenson developed his skills in a leading internet marketing company and is role leading Strategy and Analysis at a lending company.

Mr Christenson earned his Bachelors in Mathematics and also in Economics from the University of Oregon. He has served the community as a past President of the Oregon Society of Association Management and Vice President of the Greater Portland Soccer District, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of Washington County’s citizen advisory organization.

Catherine Koch offers a history of success in the Energy / Utilities industry. Her career encompasses a history of solid results with Puget Sound Energy that includes the oversight of teams of professionals and multimillion dollar budgets to continually improve energy transmission and distribution.

Ms. Koch’s contributions to the success of Puget Sound Energy are immeasurable. As the Director of Planning, she led the planning, budgeting, and analysis of gas and electric transmission and distribution infrastructure to meet the needs of more than 2.1 million customers. In that position, Catherine managed a $44MM annual budget and supervised six direct reports and a total headcount of 144 employees across the Gas and Electric Planning organization. As part of this position, she represented the company in regulatory proceedings, providing testimony and answering questions related to rate increases, grid modernization, reliability, and pipeline safety.

Prior to this role, Catherine served as the Director of Compliance for Puget Sound Energy, where she established a formal compliance program from the ground up, creating a framework of policies, procedures, and best practices to ensure adherence to all legal and regulatory requirements governing the industry. Overall, she launched and led the NERC Compliance Program, Gas Compliance Program, and Quality Management program.

Her previous career history with Puget Sound Energy spans multiple management positions in compliance and contract administration, as well as Manager of Total Energy System Planning and Lead Consulting Engineer for Gas System Engineering. Prior to joining Puget Sound Energy, Catherine served in supervisory and engineering roles with Washington Natural Gas.

In 2022, Catherine established Reimagine Energy Consulting, a firm that provides advisory services to Energy industry clients seeking to build strategies to meet customer needs while minimizing environmental impact.
Catherine holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and holds a Professional Engineering license in Mechanical Engineering.

Deborah T. (Deb) Affonsa is currently an executive advisor at EDMs, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the energy sector. She is also a part-time Lecturer for The Wharton School, Communication Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

She previously served as Chief Customer Officer for Public Service Electric and Gas (PSEG) with responsibility for all aspect of customer operation (meter-to-cash, meter reading, billing, credit & collections) as well as customer service and account management (contact centers, account management, complaints).

Prior to PSEG, Deb was Vice President of Customer Service for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Her responsibilities included the company’s contact center operations, local customer service offices, business customer account management, local customer experience teams’ new revenue development and escalated customer relations, within the Customer Care organization. Her previous role at Pacific Gas and Electric Company was Vice President, Corporate Strategy, reporting to the president. In this role, Affonsa was responsible for driving development and implementation of a detailed, integrated, cross-
functional five-year forward -looking plan for achieving and maintaining the company’s vision of becoming the leading utility in the United States. She also identified emerging trends in the utility industry, recognizing interdependencies, potential synergies, and conflicts to assist senior management in prioritizing and making decisions. She also managed the company’s benchmarking and continuous improvement efforts.

Prior to joining PG&E Company, Affonsa held the position of Senior Director, Corporate Strategy and Development, for its holding company, PG&E Corporation. There she was responsible for evaluating potential new business opportunities, managing the corporate-wide strategic planning process and leading teams in the evaluation and development of Utility strategies around key issues (Smart Grid, PV, etc.).

Affonsa has additional experience in the utility industry, serving as Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for Community Energy, Inc., a privately held, start-up, wind energy company. In that role, she established the strategic sales plan, including revenue, earnings, and market share goals both regionally and
nationally, as well as developing the internal processes and procedures for running a start-up. Affonsa was also Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for Marlin Leasing Corporation, where she developed strategic sales initiatives and oversaw the realignment and restructuring of the National Account’s sales team.

Affonsa holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Villanova University and a Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. She successfully participated in the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program in 2000.