Career Forecast 2011: Energy and Natural Resources
Published: Newsletter to AESC Members (March 2011)
John Ryan was interviewed by BlueSteps as one of four noted experts who specialize in retained executive search within Energy and Natural Resources. The goal of the interview was to gain professional insights into developments within the sector, and an outlook for 2011.
BlueSteps: What is happening within Energy / Natural Resources right now in terms of hiring?
John: Currently renewable energy is the most active in hiring. Conventional power generation, which is typically comprised of gas and coal, is slow. There are always some gas-fired power plants being financed and constructed but the activity is a fraction of what it looked like in the past. Clearly the recession which resulted in a 10-20% drop in power demand two years ago did not help. I think the most active segments today are solar, smart grid, energy storage, energy management and wind (roughly in that order).
BlueSteps: What do you think is on the horizon for the rest of 2011?
John: I believe that renewable energy will get an inadvertent boost from the nuclear crisis in Japan. Germany took a number of nuclear power plants offline as a precautionary measure and that industry as a whole is in turmoil.
- Solar energy will continue to march forward and do well this year since that industry is working on not only utility-scale power projects but also distributed generation, commercial, rooftop, and smaller systems including residential. The cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels continues to drop and some industry consultants believe that solar PV will achieve cost parity with conventional power generation in five to six years.
- Wind is still beset with the difficulty of structuring profitable and sensible power purchase agreements, which has led to the commissioning of some merchant wind farms by some of the big players.
- Energy storage and energy management will be strong sectors to provide balance for the year.
- Biofuels which I have not mentioned before might benefit from rising fuel prices.
BlueSteps: How can a candidate best present him/herself to get noticed in today’s marketplace?
John: I think it’s important for candidates with significant career goals to maintain a network; this is Number One in my mind. Much of the recruiting for important talent is not conducted via job boards but through contacts, whether they are industry contacts, search consultants, attorneys or private equity professionals. I think LinkedIn has become a useful networking site and should be utilized. Attending industry conferences is also very useful to get noticed. I think taking advantage of speaking opportunities, workshops and providing commentary to print, digital and video information sources is also key.
BlueSteps: How do you grow your own network of candidates within this sector?
John: I have covered power since 1989, and have grown out my network by attending conferences and seminars, including several speaking engagements. Once I had access to the Internet I further built out my network via direct networking, rekindling old friendships, and using sites like LinkedIn with its virtual rolodex. We also have a database of over 100,000 energy professionals that we constantly update.
BlueSteps: What is your career background? How did you get into search?
John: I have been in executive search since 1989. I worked for a small boutique firm during my final year of college at the University of Chicago and discovered that I enjoyed the industry, and liked having the continual opportunity to help growing companies connect with A players. In 1997, I had the opportunity to co-found our firm, which has done very well over the last fourteen years. In 2010, we joined TRANSEARCH and I became the global practice leader for Renewable Energy and Clean Tech. Over the last 22 years, I have helped a number of utilities, IPP’s, developers, manufacturers, consulting firms, private equity firms and banks with senior director to C-level roles.
BlueSteps.com is an online career management service for global senior executives. As an exclusive service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), BlueSteps enables senior executives to be visible to over 6,000 AESC member retained executive search professionals. For more information, please visit http://www.bluesteps.com/
The Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) is the worldwide professional association for the retained executive search industry and promotes the highest level of ethics and professional practice in the industry.
