Connie Durcsak, President and CEO, Utilities Telecom Council

Connie Durcsak

What makes her powerful: The Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) has been at the forefront of creating partnerships between the utility communications community and Congress, government agencies, state regulators and other industry stakeholders to elevate the communications perspective and convey the importance of the reliability and security of communications systems are made a top priority -- and Durcsak leads the charge.

Under her leadership, this impact has been seen not only in domestic policies on a local and national level, but also in UTC's global presence in Canada, Europe, Africa, South American and Asia.  UTC serves as the unifying voice representing these issues across the globe and is a global leader in the development of utility communications-oriented best practices. Communication networks are the fundamental building blocks needed to deploy energy and enable smart grids. And updating grid communication networks as well as funding, regulatory and internal support is critical to modernizing the utility as a whole.  While much of the industry from both the energy and smart grid side is focused on core delivery, UTC's message has been and will continue under Durcsak's direction to be the focus on the communication layer that supports energy and water utilities. 

Durcsak strongly believes that information and communications technology is the backbone of energy and water utilities and the key to driving next-generation technologies. Durcsak plans to continue driving UTC as the aggressive voice of critical infrastructure communications in order to meet the challenges facing the industry in Washington and with regulators.

"Connie is both fierce and influential. Others may be brilliant and fierce about slices of the smart grid pie, but Connie's smarter about what makes it all work together than anyone else in Washington," Bill Moroney, retired CEO of UTC, said about his successor.

Durcsak, who was appointed President and CEO of the UTC after Moroney's retirement, joined UTC from the Wireless Infrastructure Association where she served as its Senior Director and as its DAS Forum's Executive Director. Her focus on wireless issues, spectrum management, and frequency coordination combined with her ability to set the strategic direction of advocacy efforts are impactful synergies for the moving the industry forward.