Larry Bekkedahl is responsible for advancing Portland General Electric's (PGE’s) strategy to build the grid of the future — one that is resilient, smart, and delivers a clean energy future. He oversees PGE’s strategic system architecture and system upgrades, which will serve as the foundation for the smart grid of the future. This includes initiatives related to system integration and operations, smart cities, enabling distributed energy resources, energy storage, dispatchable standby generation, transmission system performance, and market interfaces, as well as research and development. Bekkedahl joined PGE in 2014 as vice president of Transmission and Distribution. He has more than three decades of leadership experience in the energy industry. Before joining PGE, he was senior vice president for transmission services at the Bonneville Power Administration and held leadership positions at Clark Public Utilities, PacifiCorp, and Montana Power Company. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Montana State University and serves on the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Research Advisory Committee, the Stanford University Bits and Watts Advisory Council, the University of Akron Energy Advisory Committee, and the All Hands Raised Board of Directors for the Portland Public Schools Foundation.