On Bishop Street there’s only one Robbie, and he’s leaving his job as executive vice president of Hawaiian Electric Co. on Aug. 31. This is huge.
Crisscrossing downtown in his unmistakable shirts and blend of executive localness, Robbie Alm has been the irrefutable face of the clean-energy initiative from its inception, and that is no small thing.
Robbie says he wants to spend more time with family and write a book about the leadership he has taught. He also wants to give HECO’s new vice presidents — Scott Seu, Colton Ching and Ron Cox — a chance to take the reins of the initiative.
After a few months Robbie will roll out his next chapter, profit or nonprofit. One thing is clear: At 61 he’s still strong and hard-driving; he’s of the generation that works till they can’t. They are the captains of industry and community.
In 1975 Robbie started out as a lawyer. After three years he left for a career of bold strokes with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, First Hawaiian Bank and then Hawaiian Electric, which introduced him to clean energy and defined his career.
Robbie has his contradictions: a lawyer who seeks not to argue, but collaborate; an agency head who could never be a bureaucrat; a senior executive who wears his passion on his sleeve; and a visionary who invokes aphorisms like "go slow to go fast" and "let go to get control."
Robbie has been candid even when candor was scarce. He has given us clarity even in the face of confusion. He has negotiated with people who had no intention of making a deal, and he has made deals out of hopeless fragmentation.
In a splendid TedX talk, he said, "It’s not about winning or losing. Like Hokule‘a, our voyage is to solve our problems in a way that truly reflects us. We need to take that voyage together."
Recognizing the friction that comes with any transformation, Robbie made every effort to stand up for the initiative, inside the company and out. He rarely turned down a chance to speak and was willing to take the brunt of public opinion. Doing so carried risk and required courage, and Robbie would go.
Robbie has ridden the rocky road of the initiative for the past five years. During his watch many of the original players have left the stage, and many new ones have appeared on it. Comings and goings have quickened; now it’s his turn.
He’s a Hawaii hero and CEO opportunities are undoubtedly available. The natural trajectory is with his core commitment: energy. Indeed, he’s speaking at the 2013 Clean Energy Summit in September. Will the next chapter start there?
In a memorable keynote at our Recovery and Transformation program in 2010, developer Dick Gushman identified a broad-based changing of the guard among Hawaii’s leadership. That change continues and Robbie is part of it.
Last year Hawaii businessman Dave Heenan published "Leaving on Top: Graceful Exits for Leaders," where he analyzed the art of stepping down. Robbie’s departure absolutely qualifies as a graceful exit. It’s right out of the book.
Robbie spoke at Clean Energy Day in July. Perhaps we should have seen things coming when he said the Clean Energy Agreement had run its course and will also have to evolve.
A spate of PUC activity preceded Robbie’s announcement, including an adverse ruling against Maui Electric on May 31; the filing of the Integrated Resource Plan on June 28; and the PUC orders of July 11 that sidetracked Big Wind and the undersea cable pending further studies.
Robbie had worked hard on Big Wind and the cable. These orders, and the lack of action by the 2013 Legislature, were not exactly what he had hoped for. Did they affect his decision to leave?
A utility that serves three insular counties in a differentiated transformation has a big job on its hands. The new executives will now be the face of that transformation. We should watch and cheer them on; after all, one of them is likely to succeed Dick Rosenblum as HECO’s next CEO.
As graceful as Robbie’s exit may be, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about it. Although his legacy will be remembered, the company will have to find solutions for new and difficult problems. That wasn’t easy before and it won’t be easy now.
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Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on the tech and energy sectors of Hawaii’s economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.
