Part 1 of 2 Interview with Bob Flexon, CEO of Dynegy in Houston

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
There is only one real problem in the world, and it doesn't matter whether the desired accomplishment is managing a sports team, building a business or running an empire. The problem is the same, leadership. Because of the tremendous consequences involved and outcomes that affect the lives of so many, the importance of leadership is immutable through the ages and highly relevant into the future.
Welcome to the Leadership Lyceum, a CEO's virtual mentor. Now, here's your host, Tom Lindquist.

**Thomas B. Linquist** (0:46)
You've entered the Leadership Lyceum. We'll bring you direct access to top CEOs and directors of boards in an interview format that provides insight on situational issues that confront CEOs every day. Think of it as a CEO's virtual mentor. Moving to CEO from CFO is a major step. Taking the step while making a move into a new organization adds yet another degree of difficulty. But add financial distress, bankruptcy, and expectations toward growth and value creation upon the emergence? It's a tall order for any new CEO, or for any CEO for that matter. We'll be right back with Bob Flexon, CEO of Dynegy.
It's my pleasure to feature my interview with Bob Flexon, CEO of Dynegy in Houston. Dynegy is a $5.5 billion revenue independent power producer in the US operating 26,000 megawatts of power generating facilities in eight states. Bob celebrates this month, his fifth anniversary with Dynegy. It's been a remarkable five years. Let's cover the Scarlet days. Bob joined Dynegy in June of 2011, and in year one of his tenure led the company through orderly bankruptcy proceedings. Dynegy emerged from bankruptcy during year two, and prior to the end of year two, acquired the power generation assets of utility company Ameren in St. Louis for $900 million.
Early in his fourth year, Dynegy completed the simultaneous acquisition of Duke's Midwest power generation assets for $2.8 billion and Equipower resources for $3.45 billion, which doubled Dynegy's net power generating capacity. During his fifth year, Dynegy announced the acquisition of French company NGES, North American Power Generation Portfolio through a joint venture with Energy Capital Partners, a private equity group. This will increase Dynegy's capacity by another 50%, achieving a total net generating capacity of 32,000 megawatts or enough power capacity to supply about 31 million homes. Happy anniversary, Bob. This is an impressive list of accomplishments for which my quick summary does little justice. Each of these major events in the reformation of Dynegy have their own extraordinary complexity and associated drama in their achievement. But this is not a story about the impressive execution of transactions, which really warrant a feature on their own. It's a glimpse into how a successful CEO has addressed the hardest parts to get right in an organization. The environment, the culture, the people.
Part one of this two-part interview with Bob uncovers what he did first in his tenure to address the human side of the leadership equation, his considerations for and dedication to the needs of the flesh and blood that run an organization, the human operating system, if you will.
Stay tuned, and we'll be right back with the interview.
There are many experiences in your background that are formative for a CEO in the making. And although your first experience at CEO was Foster Wheeler, I'd like to start with Dynegy and talk about that. And you came into the company in the middle of a distressed period for Dynegy, and that led to the bankruptcy filing and emergence with your first year on the job. Share your experience and how your background prepared you for the type of environment you found yourself in coming to Dynegy.

**Bob Flexon** (4:49)
Sure, Tom, and I'd start out by saying joining Dynegy, we knew it would be a challenging environment. The one thing that I did coming out of the gate was ensure that we had a team, an experienced team that can hit the ground running. So when I came and joined Dynegy, I brought with me half a dozen or so people that I had worked with in the past.
Virtually all of them were at NRG at the time. So knowing that it's quite a challenging environment, a key to success is the team that you're with. And being surrounded by some very good, talented, team-oriented folks really made our entry here into Dynegy that much easier and set us up for a better chance of success than if I otherwise had come by myself.

**Thomas B. Linquist** (5:33)
I see. How did you select that team or what were the areas?

**Bob Flexon** (5:36)
These are people we've worked together and it really gave us a comprehensive team to come in here and why that was a huge benefit for us coming in. The balance of the employees at Dynegy suddenly see all these people coming in with NRG passports and it's like this is Dynegy, this isn't NRG. So right away you have to work and develop the trust with the existing Dynegy employees and you really have to work hard at assimilating into one team and what I've always said since I came to Dynegy, it's one team, it's one goal. And we want to be the best IPP, the best power producer out there.