As part of the Dean’s Business Leader Speaker Series, SoCal Edison Director of Advanced Energy Solutions Brian Stonerock extolls the virtues of hands-on learning, developing business acumen, and…being like a duck. (Not a typo.)
“I graduated in 2002 as an electrical and computer engineering major, and the reason I came here was because I heard great things about the program and the hands-on experience I’d get,” explains Brian Stonerock (BS Electrical and Computer Engineering ’02). As a part of the College of Business Administration’s initiatives to bridge the gap between students and industry, Stonerock participated in a Q&A-style lecture co-hosted by fellow CPP alum and adjunct professor, Alex Berberian (MBA ’20) as the first of the school’s Dean’s Business Leader Speaker Series during the first week of October 2024, showcasing his full-circle career as a former CPP graduate-turned-energy director.
While early student memories are still etched in Stonerock’s mind, the Cal Poly Pomona graduate has certainly taken on a number of challenges since his days as a student on CPP’s gorgeous 1600+ acre campus. He joined Southern California Edison in 1998 and has held several positions in strategic planning, operations, transportation electrification, project management, system planning, grid technology and engineering. Currently serving as the Director of Advanced Energy Solutions for the southland energy giant, Stonerock’s mission is to incentivize customers across segments to adopt energy efficient measures or behaviors to deliver kWh/KW savings, deliver 1000+ MW of carbon free demand response to the California grid, and support the basic needs and essential services of over 1.4M low income, disadvantaged and vulnerable customers through bill assistance, energy efficiency and grid resiliency offerings.
He credits internships as a necessary component of the become by doing philosophy of his polytechnic alma mater. “As an intern I was learning fundamentals and things I could transfer and apply, and it gave me insight on what to focus on. I had a chance to work hands-on with meters and lab equipment, which gave me a leg up on other folks and opened doors for me to do things in the field and on the engineering side,” Stonerock explained to students in the lecture hall of Building 162 on campus. “Didn’t have any friends here initially, didn’t live nearby, but here I was able to tackle the hard things and not shy away from challenges, and that really gave me a lot of confidence towards my career path.”
That confidence would serve Stonerock well as he launched into system planning and engineering by doing transmission distribution analysis, before seizing an opportunity to lead a number of SoCal Edison’s major projects — including setting up the company’s command system to work with first responders and federal agencies; establishing governance processes which offered real life insight into the finance aspect of the company, serving as a field supervisor with hard hat and boots to ensure crew safety, and serving as a district manager leading planning and operations. Stonerock’s roles don’t stop there; he has also been a program manager and Director of Business Planning and Grid Technology before settling into his current position as Director of Advanced Energy Solutions where he is spearheading innovative clean energy initiatives to reach net zero by 2045.
After over 20 years in the industry, Stonerock touts his leadership learnings as a key to his ability to manage teams and achieve complex objectives. “If you work in a chaotic environment, the leader’s shadow will cast into that organization and chaos will reverberate through all the things happening. You ever see a duck swimming across a pond? My personal leadership style is to be like a duck. They seem calm and move effortlessly across the water, but underneath they are kicking like crazy. The metaphor is, ‘don’t be afraid to work hard and put in the effort, grow, learn, and advance, but you don’t have to always show it on LinkedIn or social media.’ If you operate the right way and are doing it for the right reasons, and you’re doing it in a calm manner, people will gravitate towards that from a leadership perspective.”