Clearwater Power General Manager and CEO Dave Hagen Is Retiring After 40 Years of Service
By Sam Skinner
Although he’s experienced plenty of change throughout his career, one thing hasn’t changed for K. David Hagen: where he goes to work.
For 40 years, Dave has proudly worked for Clearwater Power Co., devoting his career to public power. With plans to retire this summer, he credits his willingness to change for his longevity at the cooperative. He quotes former UCLA basketball head coach John Wooden: “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
In 1983, Dave wasn’t looking for a job. Fresh out of school with an associate degree in drafting technology, he was happily working for a land surveyor. Dave enjoyed the outdoors and engineering, and land surveying was a great combination of both interests. But when a classmate from college called and told him about a field engineer position at Clearwater Power, he applied and was hired.
Growing up in the Lewis-Clark Valley, Dave had heard Clearwater Power was a great place to work, and his initial days proved employees thought so, too. As he completed his orientation with the cooperative, John Pankey, an office manager who later became a general manager, commented, “Once you’re here for 5 years, we’ll have you for life.”
He was correct.
Dave’s first decade with Clearwater Power was as a field engineer working on overhead and underground power line design. He liked meeting with members and helping them get power for new accounts, system improvements, and upgrades. He enjoyed seeing so much of the service territory, which covers 11 counties in 3 states.
It was during this time that Harold Johnson, a foreman, called him out to a job. After quite a bit of back-and-forth conversation, Dave was carefully explaining and justifying the parameters of the project.
“Toward the end of the conversation, Harold looked at me and said, ‘Dave, someday you’re going to run this cooperative,’” Dave says. “I thought, ‘There’s no way.’”
But like John, Harold was correct.
Before that memorable conversation, Dave had never really thought about moving up within the organization.
“I just constantly wanted to try something different and take on new challenges,” he says.
But once the seed was planted, Dave started to think about leadership at the cooperative. Dave returned to school, earning a Bachelor of Science in Management from Lewis-Clark State College.
As jobs opened within the organization, Dave stepped in, embracing change, taking on added responsibilities, and accepting new challenges. He became a system engineer, simultaneously adding an important role for any cooperative: a safety director.
“We’re a small cooperative, and I had the opportunity to wear lots of hats,” Dave says. “That’s probably why I’ve stayed here so long. Every time I had the itch to try something new, a new opportunity came open.”
As the landscape changed for the cooperative, there was a need to diversify Clearwater Power’s wholesale power supply. Dave was tasked with implementing a new contract with a new wholesale supplier and maintaining the ongoing BPA contract in a newly created position: manager of energy resources and key accounts. He relished the challenge of learning the ins and outs of the new contracts and working on the delivery of power, all while enjoying the interactions between the cooperative and its members.
It was during this time he added a new title, manager of Clearwater Propane, which he says was 1 of his biggest career challenges and is 1 of his proudest professional accomplishments.
When he took the helm of Clearwater Propane, a wholly owned subsidiary of Clearwater Power, it was midyear and the company had lost around $350,000.
The board of directors needed to make a decision. Clearwater Propane either needed to close or find a way to make the subsidiary successful. Dave reviewed every detail of the organization and created a new business plan. He recommended the board keep Clearwater Propane in business and presented the plan to help the subsidiary succeed. They accepted his proposal.
Today, Clearwater Propane is profitable and successfully serves propane to more than 3,300 customers.
“I want to get the job done, and get it done well,” Dave says. “I’m driven in that way. Whether it is learning to swim at age 57 to compete in a half Ironman or working on a 5-year business plan, it’s my nature to want to excel at what I’m doing.”
Others noticed this too.
When the general manager of Clearwater Power, Sandy Huling, retired, Dave was promoted to general manager/ CEO. He’s held the role for the past 19 years, leading the cooperative and successfully upholding its mission to provide safe, reliable, and affordable power to rural members.
Dave is quick to note CEOs are only successful if all team members are successful. His trick to successful leadership for nearly 2 decades is to “hire the very best people you can hire, provide clear direction and a strong and trusted communication path so that you can make adjustments, ensure the team has the resources needed to do the job—and then get out of the way,” he says.
“I’m sure I’m biased,” he adds, “but we have a great utility. Clearwater Power is a wonderful place to work.”
Dave retires this summer after 40 full years of service that seems to have gone by in a blink.
“I started at age 24,” he says. “The next thing you know, I’m retiring.”
Dave is married and has 2 daughters. He and his wife, Jeri, recently welcomed their first granddaughter, promoting him from Dad to Grandpa.