Leading in High-Stakes Environments with Tom Burke

About this episode

Tom Burke discusses his extensive career in the utility industry and military service, sharing insights on leadership and storm response.

For more information, connect with us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠cbmrep.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this episode of Power the Network, guest host Tim Drake sits down with CBM account manager Tom Burke to explore a career that spans decades in the utility industry and nearly four decades of military service. Tom shares how his early engineering work at Black & Veatch led to more than 20 years at Kansas City Power & Light (now Evergy), where he held leadership roles across engineering, distribution operations, underground systems, and storm response. The conversation goes well beyond a résumé. Tom reflects on leadership lessons learned from balancing two demanding careers at once, including deployments to Iraq and the Horn of Africa with the National Guard. He offers insight into how utilities plan for and respond to major storm events, how mutual aid across utilities actually works, and why people—not systems—remain the center of effective operations. The episode also covers Tom’s involvement with the Midwest Energy Association and his transition into a sales-focused account management role at CBM. This is a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, service, resilience, and the…

People in this episode

Host: Tim Drake

Guest: Tom Burke

Topics covered

• leadership
• utility industry
• military service
• storm response
• account management
• infrastructure

Keywords

• leadership
• utility
• military
• storm response
• account management
• infrastructure
• resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CBM, Kansas City Power & Light, Evergy, Midwest Energy Association, Black & Veatch

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