Ashley Simpson Email & Phone Number

Novi, Mi, Us

About the company: ITC Holdings is the largest independent electricity transmission company in the U.S. Its high-voltage infrastructure in seven states and secondary headquarters in Iowa serve traditional utilities, independent power producers, industrial customers, and energy providers. I lead a team of ~35 and manage a $7M+ budget including funding for capital projects. I rebuilt the safety, physical security, emergency preparedness and response, and HOP teams as well as partner relationships. I assessed and redirected the planning, finances, and budgeting processes and put controls in place to curtail overspend, and subsequently ensure that the company achieved its capital spend goals. I upgraded the physical security department’s capabilities to meet today’s challenges such as cyberthreats. DELIVERED RESULTS:► Provided strategic oversight and direction to support a cross-functional team in developing a comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Strategy and Plan.► Reduced overspend by 150% in capital and maintenance budgets with precise forecasting and resource allocation.► Pioneered robust project management processes to prioritize, budget, and control capital spend. ► Created and presented the first-ever five-year plan for physical security to the board of directors, co-supported by the vice president. ► Disrupted the existing vision of physical security as law enforcement by expanding the role’s scope to include enhanced collaboration with the cybersecurity teams, threat intelligence, employee relations, and team development. ► Led the strategy and direction to shift the focus of corporate safety and physical security goals from lagging to leading indicators anchored on data-driven KPIs.► Appointed by CFO as member of innovation team to search for industry insights and opportunities.

Novi, Mi, Us

As I&D became interwoven into the organizational culture, I transitioned out of my previous dual role to solely provide leadership, direct relationships, and design new strategies to sustain the already achieved gains such as improvements in employee engagement and performance. With two direct reports and dual reporting to the CHRO and CEO, I established corporate I&D goals and also directed all branding, marketing, communication, industry, and community outreach efforts. To increase the diversity of talent in the company, I implemented talent sourcing, recruitment, selection, and retention best practices and made the new policies and practices applicable to external stakeholders and third parties (e.g., Supplier Diversity Program). I also led the Strategic Diversity Advisory Committee, which included executive leadership, to ensure the sustained integration and alignment of I&D with business objectives. DELIVERED RESULTS:► Brought together a hand-selected team of 55, including C-suite members, individual contributors, thought leaders, and employee representatives, to define the initial strategy, structures, and execution. ► Infused I&D best practices into organizational culture, day-to-day operations, and third-party relationships. ► Introduced Supplier Diversity Program and increased diverse supplier spend by 30% in two years. ► Met 100% of company and executive leadership’s I&D targets and obtained 100% leadership and 99% employee completion of the new I&D curriculum. ► Raised diverse representation of professional hires by 58% over two years after the creation and adoption of comprehensive I&D talent management frameworks.

Novi, Mi, Us

I became the owner of the organization-wide HOPI and I&D strategy design and implementation with full endorsement from C-level, senior management, and employees from different company levels. Even though I was first recruited to focus on the performance improvement component, I held a dual role during the I&D transformation’s introductory phase and later became its leader. At the time, I reported to the director of asset protection and performance for EFP and to the CAO and COO for I&D. My work in HOPI and I&D went beyond designing and implementing initiatives and projects. Both are now seamlessly embedded in the organizational culture and its day-to-day practices and are part of how everyone interacts in the organization.DELIVERED RESULTS:► Mobilized senior leadership support, including the chief operating officer, chief administrative officer, vice president of human resources, and employees from different levels, to formulate the corporate vision, strategy, processes, infrastructure, and KPIs for HOPI and subsequently heightened visibility for leading indicators and streamlined operations. ► Partnered with and obtained buy-in from contractors to uphold the safety culture, ensure OSHA and NERC compliance standard adherence, and implement HOPI initiatives. ► Transformed ways of working for Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) with impactful process improvements, effective tools, team communications, and HOPI programs. ► Led and managed a team of industry experts during the MISO assistance visit project for human performance improvement program implementation. ► Developed process for identifying, trending, and preventing high-impact, low-frequency (HILF) safety events. ► Implemented corrective action program that increased CAP stakeholder completion rate by 32% in 12 months.

Detroit, Michigan, Us

About the company: DTE Energy is a Detroit-based diversified energy nationwide supplier of electric and gas power and non-utility services. A recruiter approached me for this individual contributor role and I saw it as an opportunity to work with new technologies and types of energy. I held dual reporting relationships with the engineering supervisor and human improvement lead. My degree in electrical engineering was critical to my success because I knew about the systems, their components, how they come together, and how they are expected to work. I envisioned, developed, and executed performance improvement practices that made a major difference in meeting NRC and INPO requirements and so did the relationships that I established with executive management to whom I provided feedback about the progress of different initiatives. DTE Energy remained in 100% compliance and kept the operation running. DELIVERED RESULTS:► Advanced QA in human performance structure embedded in all operations as department's champion with executive management endorsement and plant-wide alignment with NRC/INPO requirements. ► Sustained uninterrupted operations across sites with 100% training and certification compliance. ► Proposed improvements to DC system to meet plant goals and industry performance standards after a thorough evaluation of maintenance effectiveness, unavailability, and functional failures while meeting plant goals and industry performance standards.

Jackson, Michigan, Us

About the company: Principal subsidiary of CMS Energy for gas and electric power to 6.7M commercial and residential customers. In my last role at Consumers Energy, I led a team of 15 unionized technicians and 15 to 25 field workers to optimize the gas service system’s operations, maintenance, installation, and repair. I reported to the department’s senior manager. As part of my assessment of the current state before redesigning processes, I discovered that the team did not have the electronic documentation and wireless communication infrastructure required for maximum performance. Thus, critical data about customer notifications of gas leaks and other similar information was not readily available to the crews that would make the necessary repairs for delivering the best service. My work also involved developing and facilitating training on the new policies, processes, and procedural changes that were established to meet the optimization goal while making sure that I managed the team within the parameters of the collective bargaining agreements. My engineering background was critical for me to make a significant impact on the business within the two years that I held the position. DELIVERED RESULTS:► Reduced OM&C technician errors by 78% after streamlining the gas leak notification process. ► Introduced mobile Wi-Fi for field workers and company-wide electronic documentation. ► Sustained safety, compliance, and productivity benefits in mission-critical processes, metrics, NERC compliance, methods, and procedures with continuous improvement methodologies. ► Trimmed engineering and design-initiated outages by 35% across all operating companies.

Jackson, Michigan, Us

Safety is the first priority in construction projects and especially in those related to energy. In this role, I spearheaded the optimization team and defined new guidelines for HVD line sectionalizing procedures to minimize safety hazards and line / substation equipment damage. By doing this, our team protected the safety and health of all employees regardless of contract or noncontract status and also protected the company’s assets. I led a team of more than 55 contract and nonexempt employees who worked on construction and maintenance projects. My work also involved reviewing proposals and selecting companies to submit contract bids as the number of projects increased. DELIVERED RESULTS:► Streamlined construction and maintenance projects’ functions.► Achieved 50% reduction in customer outage response time. ► Improved safety, compliance, and productivity with new process improvements and metrics as well as NERC compliance methods, procedures, and documentation.

Jackson, Michigan, Us

Master Of Science - Ms, Engineering Management

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Electrical Engineering With Focus On Energy System