Jonathan Wilks

Regulatory Affairs Manager, Risk Manager, Business Analyst

JONATHAN D. WILKS
PROFILE SUMMARY

STRATEGIC, CORPORATE BUSINESS CONSULTING & REGULATORY PROFESSIONAL

An executive with over 18 years in cross-cultural business environments (USA and Oman), reflecting profit driven experience in Development of Electric Power Grid Networks and Regulation. Record of successfully negotiating government funding with an annual price control of 104 M USD CAPEX and 55 M USD OPEX and managed CAPEX network development plans of $26 M (10 M RO) annually.

- Corporate Business Planning: Corporate Business Plans, Risk, Compliance, and Regulatory Management.
- Strategic Network Planning: Network Development, Load Forecasting, Risk Management, Capital Investment Assessment.
- Network Reliability Outage Management: Manage Relays, Switchgears, Transformer Loads, Distribution Line Reliability.
- Power Quality Assessments: Lead Power Fault Analysis and Power Quality Assessments.
- Certified Professional Coach: Leading, Mentoring, Coaching, Brainstorming Knowledge Sharing Sessions.

• Demonstrated proficiencies in managing the regulatory, compliance, risk and corporate planning functions in electricity sector while acting as the primary regulatory focal point for maintain regulatory communication with government stakeholders; developed the corporate compliance framework and presenting the same to CXOs and Board of Directors expert in sharing knowledge between the sector companies.
• Positively impacted the corporate performance by monitoring the corporate risk status and controls; developing the strategic business plan, identifying the key performance indicators and presenting them to management counterparts.
• Certified Professional Engineer, managed the strategic network planning department comprising demand load forecasting, network analysis, risk assessment, infrastructure development and network solution projects to build the electric utility grid in northern Oman; acted as Project Lead in losses reduction projects and meter reading data management.
• Skilled in design, project management and maintenance of electric power systems including relays, switchgear and fuse coordination, transformer load analysis, distribution line reliability studies, fault calculations, capacitor studies.
• Applied transformational leadership style in mentoring and training several Arab colleagues to enhance their capabilities for senior engineers and managerial roles; groomed 6 Arab Managers who later became successful leaders within the electricity sector.
• Enabler of practices, mentoring & motivating junior engineers and evaluating and refining performance at an individual and team level through planned training and development initiatives.
• Rich academic background (MBA and M.Sc. - Electrical Engineering) and a convincing communicator with equal level of proficiency in English and Arabic (Certified) languages.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Majan Electricity Company, Sohar, Oman Aug 2007 to Jun 2018
Last designated as Senior Manager - Regulatory & Corporate Planning

CAREER PROGRESSION WITH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ROLE
Senior Manager - Regulatory & Corporate Planning (Aug 2016 to Jun 2018)

• Leveraged overall experience in managing the regulatory, compliance, risk and corporate planning functions while serving as the focal point between MJEC and the government authority and ensured MJEC's legal compliance with laws and regulations while providing leadership to a team of 3 direct reports and 4 indirect reports.
• Reviewed and approved the five year business plan (2017-2021) and registered active involvement in managing the executive management reviews of the business plans and presenting the business plan to the Executive Management and Board of Directors.
• Clearly evaluated the corporate quarterly performance report and presented the performance to the Executive Management and Board of Directors.
• Organized brainstorming knowledge sharing sessions across the sector and standardize the companies’ approach to the DSSS submission.

Advisor - Regulatory and Compliance (May 2015 to Aug 2016)

• Championed the development of compliance in the electricity sector as a whole by initiating sector quarterly compliance meetings and knowledge sharing between the sector companies.
• Losses Reduction Leader, organised a losses reduction campaign of 50 staff and supervised the data collection and losses analysis which resulted in achieving the annual losses target for the first time in 5 years and saving 15.6 M USD in recovered revenue and avoidance of regulatory penalties.
• Developed the meter reading software with the IT/data management team viz. developing business case, project strategy and trained the Omani data management team in the meter reading software administration and data analytics; read 230,000 electricity and 70,000 water accounts in Mar 2018.
• Recorded reduction in annual losses from 14% to 10.43%, which not only led MJEC to succeed in achieving its losses target in 5 years (2015) in its history, but also improved MJEC’s financial position by 6M RO (15.58 M USD).
• Functioned as a Team Leader of the Distribution System Security Standards (DSSS) review team and Losses Chief Data Analyst in the losses reduction team to analyze the losses geographically identifying significant losses trends.
• Expert behind Losses data capture application development and successfully captured 38,000 meter reads in two weeks and data analysis time brought down from 1 month to 2 weeks.

Network Planning Manager (Mar 2011 to May 2015)

• Strategically contributed in managing the company (2012-2014) CAPEX price control submission to Authority for Electricity Regulation-Oman (AER) worth more than $265 M USD (102 M RO).
• Supervised the preparation and submission of technical and economic pre-investment appraisal documents (PIADs) for company future capital expenditure projects.
• Accomplished electric network power quality assessments; supervised the PQ meter installation with remote communication at 30 primary substations; developed power quality 5-year management plan and managed the power quality investigation of Sohar Industrial Estate customer GSSI (Oct 2013).
• Key contributor in developing a power quality culture in Oman and recognition at the first Oman power quality conference in Nov 2013; only conference speaker who presented real-world PQ examples and the power quality development plan.
• Submitting all Pre-Investment Appraisal Documents (PIADS) within the deadline to the Authority of Electricity Regulation (AER) and AER complimented MJEC as having the highest quality PIADs in the electricity sector - 2012.
• Initiated a program for the 2013 PIADs to be prepared solely by Omani engineers without the aid of consultants – 2012. This change saved the company 50,000 USD annually in operating costs and empowered the national Omani engineers.
• Timely submitted the Capability Statement to the AER on-time and acquiring approval on the same without any comments.
• Introduced a new substation design 3x20 MVA for the first time in MJEC’s network.
• Successfully managed the transition of load flow and protection coordination software from ETAP to DigSilent and arranged trainings.

Head of Network Planning (Oct 2009 to Mar 2011)

• Supervised the preparation and submission of technical and financial justifications for the company CAPEX projects for 2010-2011 budgets; monitored CAPEX outturns and supervised the budget commitments for all 33kV projects.
• Leveraged domain insight in network planning policies and procedures development, reviewed and approved all policy documents and implemented training for planning engineers to understand the policy documents.
• Supervised the work of 3 Planning Engineers and 2 Planning & Reporting Officers comprising managing their performance reviews, training, salary increases, timesheet approvals, annual leaves and other employee issues.
• Managed the MJEC demand and energy forecast, during Jul 2010 – Sept 2010.
• Managed the preparation of the annual MJEC Capability Statement outlining the network constraints and projects (Aug 2011-Nov 2011)
• Provided engineering support, and budgetary & related decisions for the final design of the 2012 33kV CAPEX projects.

Senior Planning Engineer (Oct 2007 to Oct 2009)

• Provided technical expertise and evaluations for three groups of Sultan Qaboose University (SQU) electrical engineering students (Sep 2008-Jun 2009).
• Facilitated as a key member of the losses reduction team and supervised and helped facilitate the activities of the network losses’ reduction consultant (Jun 2008 - Oct 2009) and aided in formation of Losses Reduction Team.
• Rolled-out an Electronic Reporting System in the capacity of team leader in-charge to standardize and validate the monthly reporting data, improve reports usefulness, reduce printing costs and promote mutual workplace.
• Submitted Quality of Service (QoS) indicators to the AER (Jan-Feb 2009) annually and initiated the installation of pole-mounted capacitors (11kV) into the MJEC network (Jan-Jun 2009).
• Reviewed technical appraisals for company CAPEX Budget of approx. 23 M Omani Rials ($59,600,000 USD) for 2008 – 09.
• Prepared and managed company (2009-2011) price control submission to Oman Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER), during Apr – Sept 2008.
• Manage the MJEC demand and provided future seven-year summer peak load energy forecast.
• Prepared the annual MJEC Capability Statement outlining the network constraints and projects, during Dec 2007 - Oct 2009.

Early Career Glimpse:

Texas New-Mexico Power Company, Texas City, Texas (Jul 2002 to Aug 2005)
Engineer IV - Distribution Engineer

Micronet Communications, Inc., Dallas, Texas (Jun 2000 to Jun 2002)
Microwave Systems Engineer

EDUCATION

 Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University - Tempe, Arizona – 2011.
 Master of Science - Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University - Tempe, AZ – 2011.
 Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University College - Station, Texas – 1997.

Other Credentials:
 Certified Professional Coach - Center for Coaching Certification Online - USA: 2018.
 Certificate in Arabic Language - Professional Training Institute - Al Ain: 2007.
 Technical Know-How: MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); DigSilent, ETAP Electrical System Modeling; AutoCAD

Professional Affiliations:
 Member of National Society of Professional Engineers (Since 1997).
 IEEE member (Since 1997)
 Toastmaster’s - Professional Speakers Association (2004-2005).

Last Resume Update April 12, 2019
Address Kuwait City, Kuwait
E-mail jonathanwilks1997@gmail.com
Phone Number +17134594175
Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanwilks1/

Contact Candidate