Submitted by Puget Sound Energy
Puget Sound Energy named local healthcare executive and regional leader Scott Armstrong as chairperson of its board of directors on November 4. Scott will also be chair of PSE’s parent company, Puget Energy.
Scott most recently served as chair and chief executive of Concure Oncology, a local company pioneering early-stage breast cancer treatment. Prior to that, Scott served 12 years as president and CEO of Group Health Cooperative. He has been a board member of PSE since 2015. In addition to PSE, he also serves as a director for Delta Dental of Washington, is an active director/advisor to several early-stage healthcare companies, and has served in a variety of roles for regional non-profit boards. Scott replaces Steve Hooper, co-founder and partner of Ignition Partners, who is stepping down from his role as chair as well as leaving PSE and Puget Energy’s board of directors. Steve served as chair since March 2017 and has been a member of the board since 2015.
“PSE is undertaking one of the most significant efforts in our nearly 150-year history as we pursue our aspirational Beyond Net Zero Carbon goal,” said Mary Kipp, president and CEO of Puget Sound Energy. “I’m thrilled to have a regional and industry leader like Scott to move us forward, building on the transformative work that we have done under Steve’s direction for the past four years.”
During Steve’s tenure as chair, key accomplishments for PSE include:
- Setting its Beyond Net Zero carbon commitment, targeting reduction of PSE’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2045 and “going beyond” by helping other sectors to enable carbon reduction across the state of Washington.
- Filing PSE’s first Clean Energy Implementation Plan in accordance with Washington state’s landmark Clean Energy Transformation Act, which PSE supported the passage of in 2019.
- Supporting customers during the global pandemic with a COVID bill assistance program that has provided $30.1 million in additional funds to help customers with past due bills.
- Deploying new web and mobile tools for easy account management, including bill payment and outage information.
- Keeping energy costs reasonable, with monthly electric bills competitive with or significantly lower than neighboring public utilities while having natural gas bills that are less than what customers paid in 2013.
PSE’s board of directors also named Andy Wappler as senior vice president and chief customer officer. Andy joined PSE in 2008, was named vice president of Corporate Affairs in 2010, and vice president of Customer Operations and Communications in 2016.
