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Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Selected as Bonneville Power's New Chief Operating Officer by Staff Columbia Basin Bulletin, September 23, 2016

The Bonneville Power Administration has selected Janet Herrin as its next chief operating officer. Herrin will bring over 30 years of energy industry experience and leadership to BPA. She will replace Claudia Andrews, who is retiring from BPA this month after 26 years of federal service.

"I am very pleased to welcome Janet Herrin to BPA's senior leadership team," said Elliot Mainzer, BPA's administrator. "I have worked closely with Janet over the past few years and have been very impressed with her character, industry knowledge and passion for operational excellence. With her deep understanding of public power, hydroelectricity and the competing demands of managing a public service organization, Janet is exceptionally well positioned to serve as BPA's next chief operating officer. I look forward to working with her to further strengthen our culture and execute on our most important strategic objectives."

Herrin, born in Seattle, will start after the beginning of the calendar year. As COO, Herrin will be responsible for Power Services; Transmission Services; Environment, Fish and Wildlife; Customer Support Services and Information Technology. She will also oversee the new Business Transformation Office and play a critical role in BPA's heightened focus on disciplined program management and cost containment.

Herrin currently serves as a senior advisor to the secretary for the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. In this role, Herrin provides strategic counsel on rapidly changing industry issues and has worked closely with BPA, including on its development of a best-in-class human resources organization.

"I am a public power person – it's where I like to be and what excites me," said Herrin. "That passion for public power originally enticed me to join TVA, and then I ended up staying for a 35-year career because the work was so interesting. I am thrilled to be coming home to the Pacific Northwest and to work in public power once again."

Herrin served as the chief administrative officer at the Tennessee Valley Authority. She led efforts to strengthen the safety culture; improve employee engagement; recruit and maintain a talented and diverse workforce; and implement successful cost-management efforts. Herrin also comes to BPA with a knowledge of hydropower from over 32 years of work on the 650-mile Tennessee River system that serves 9 million people, culminating in an 11-year tenure as TVA's senior vice president of river operations and dam safety.

Herrin has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a Master of Science in civil engineering from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and physics from Willamette University. She was a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and plans to re-establish her engineering certification when she comes to BPA.

BPA, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit federal power marketer that sells wholesale electricity from 31 federal dams and one nuclear plant to 142 electric utilities, serving millions of consumers and businesses in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and parts of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. BPA delivers power via more than 15,000 circuit miles of lines and 261 substations to 475 transmission customers. In all, BPA markets about a third of the electricity consumed in the Northwest and operates three-quarters of the region's high-voltage transmission grid. BPA also funds one of the largest fish and wildlife programs in the world.