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Todd Carter has spent most of his career at various components of Constellation Energy, the largest energy company on the 2007 Fortune 500 list. He's taken many steps up the management chain, and today he's director of IT at Constellation NewEnergy in Baltimore, a competitive supplier of electricity to commercial and industrial customers. He loves the job.
"What energizes me? It's people. It's results. It's personal growth, and not just my own," Carter says. "As you move up through the team lead level, supervisor level, director, manager level, you're propelled by results you achieve as a group. That's where you really find reward and motivation."
Constellation Energy, which posted revenues of $19.3 billion in 2006, manages fuels and energy services for customers. The company owns a diversified fleet of seventy-eight power-generating units across the U.S. with a total capacity of about 8,700 megawatts. Carter got his start with Constellation when he joined Baltimore Gas and Electric Co (BGE), a regulated electricity and natural gas utility in Central Maryland.
Leading Project Keystone
Right now Carter is leading a massive IT venture under Constellation NewEnergy's Project Keystone. As he explains it, Constellation NewEnergy has eight regional offices throughout the U.S. and Canada, and each one has its own collection of apps. Project Keystone will implement a consolidated suite of apps, changing business IT processes.
The project is currently in the build phase. About a hundred people are working on it, including some staff in Bombay, India.
The first implementation for the first region will be finished this September, and the entire project should be done late in 2008. The core project team is headquartered in Baltimore, where Carter is based.
"It's extremely satisfying to work on a project like this," Carter says. "Getting to the end state of a program like this is a reward in itself."
On the cutting edge
IT at Constellation Energy is on the cutting edge, Carter notes with pride. "Most businesses today find they must transform themselves and do things faster and cheaper, and IT is an enabler of that," he says.
"We are a progressive company, but we make sure we get the benefits of our technology investments. That's the key to managing both sides of the ledger."
Into IT
Carter is a Baltimore native. His father died when he was young, and his mother supported the family. In high school in the 1980s, "We had computers, but not many. I came in at the beginning." He was led to IT by the idea of "linking new technologies to solve business problems."
He got his BSIS from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in 1987, and completed an MBA with a concentration in economics at Loyola College (Baltimore, MD) in 1991.
While in college, he co-opped at Crown Central Petroleum Corp (Baltimore, MD), and learned desktop support and IT development.
During a senior year internship at BGE he worked in the apps area, on development support for customer and distribution centers.
After he graduated, Carter worked as an IT analyst and IT auditor for several companies. But, "I wanted to move into leadership, and that's why I went for the MBA," he says.
In 1995 he returned to BGE. "It was a very strong company with growth opportunities and the ability to move around in different areas. When we moved to the current Constellation Energy holding company structure, I found even more opportunities," Carter says.
Moving up at BGE
His first job was supervisor of IT management systems in BGE's customer service and distribution division. The division employed 1,300 people at seven Maryland locations, and Carter handled the IT team and financial analysis of IT projects. He managed change as new IT systems were rolled out, oversaw IT budgeting and planning for the division, and was also in charge of LAN support.
IT for that department was being centralized. "As a manager, I learned to balance the demand for IT services with the cost," Carter says.
In 1997 he became supervisor of materials engineering and procurement in the electric transmission and distribution division (ET&D). The idea was to reduce the overall material costs for the division by implementing commonsense approaches. "I was a non-engineer leading a very sharp group of engineers," he says. "There was no IT in this job at all; it was all managing."
Utility systems and IT
In 1999 he began four years as director of utility systems for the general services division, supporting apps for the operating division. It seemed clear to him that his career would be in leadership and management, not just IT.
vHis command included people and projects supporting systems for three of the company's utility divisions. There were about eighty people in all with five supervisors reporting to him.
In 2003 Carter moved on to direct IT in ET&D. The IT team there had to replace an aging electric outage system, maintain an electric control system and consolidate various electric data acquisition systems. "We were running into limitations with hardware and software to support the aging system," Carter says.
Crisis mode and more
When Hurricane Isabel hit the East Coast in September 2003 Carter jumped to crisis-mode management. "IT was part of the workforce restoring power to our customers, and the whole industry mobilized to help the effort," Carter says. "Crews from all over the country needed to be coordinated. IT was supporting all of that 24/7."
Later that year he became director of IT at BGE Home, a heating, cooling and home improvements service company in central Maryland. "It's a totally separate company with its own profit-and-loss statement, cost structure and culture," he explains. "I brought in a team, took out the old IT systems and put in new."
He supervised about twenty people and used local consultants as well. "That was a very rewarding job," he says.
Up to Constellation
His current role, with Constellation NewEnergy, which he began in late 2005, is similar to his BGE Home job but much, much larger. "From a revenue standpoint, it's like my former job on steroids," he says with a smile.
As a manager, Carter enjoys working at a company that "aggressively promotes people. I actually had more offers to move up than those I accepted. I had to look at each one and make the best decision."
Carter puts his personal energy to work in the community. He is a founder of the Kelson Elementary School academic and sport club; a member of Project 2000, a mentoring organization for inner-city schools; a founder of a basketball league for more than 300 boys and girls, a member of his town's recreation and parks council, a member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Maryland, and more.
"I like being involved with all of them," he says. "They grow out of one another."
His idea is to "build strong relationships that add value to your work. You don't just look at past accomplishments, you move forward and develop people moving forward. And you have fun doing it," he says.
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