Manitoba Hydro names Allan Danroth as new president and CEO

Manitoba Hydro announced Allan Danroth as its new president and CEO, Ben Graham, chair of the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board announced on Tuesday.

Danroth served as a vice-president with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries and in a senior role at Capital Power, an energy producer based in Alberta.

“We are extremely pleased to announce that Allan will be joining the Manitoba Hydro team following an extensive local and national search process that took place over the last few months,” said Graham.

“We know he is a proven, successful leader, with both extensive senior leadership experience in (a) variety of energy and resource businesses, as well as ‘boots on the ground’ experience in power engineering,

“As a result, Allan brings both a sophisticated management and field perspective to Manitoba Hydro, which will be critical to guiding the utility forward in the coming years.”

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Danroth replaces Jay Grewal, who was let go four months after the Manitoba New Democrats won last year’s provincial election.

Grewal ruffled feathers when she said Manitoba could need new power generation by 2029 and would reach out to independent producers to supply power from wind and other sources.

The minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, Adrien Sala, has said new energy resources would have to be publicly owned.

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Meanwhile, Danroth wouldn’t discuss future energy plans at his first press conference and said he’s just settling into the job and meeting with his team.

“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on that, that’s getting really into specifics. I haven’t even been able to meet all of my team, it’s summer and lots of folks are away,” he said.

But he says he’s eager to take on the challenges at the Crown corporation.

“The first stage of that is learning and listening to my leadership team and trying to understand those issues and what are opportunities are and the things we can do differently,” he said.

Danroth will be moving to Manitoba to take on the role and he is looking forward to working with and listening to employees and the broader community.

“Keeping things simple and focused on Manitoba Hydro’s role as the province’s provider of electricity and natural gas will be key to preparing us for the energy world of tomorrow,” he said.

Graham added he wanted to extend a personal note of thanks to interim CEO Hal Turner for his work over the past number of months as the board completed its search and selection process.

“It is never easy being thrust into an interim position,” said Graham. “Hal remains a critical part of the senior leadership team at Manitoba Hydro, and on behalf of all members of the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board I want to thank him for his efforts and his leadership through this period.”

And Danroth said he will be leaning on Turner a lot during his first initial weeks and months on the job.

“I know he has done a great job keeping things on track over the last few months, and I thank him in advance for his support.”

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