Ken Macken dedicated his life and career to electric cooperatives. He knew the job from the inside: the crews, the culture, the moments where safety either holds or it doesn’t. As Director of Safety and Training at NRECA, he became the leader of what is now one of the most attended electric utility safety conferences in the country, growing the Safety Leadership Summit this year in St. Louis to nearly 1,300 attendees. He didn’t do that by talking about compliance. He did it by connecting with people.

Ken believed the shift from a process-first culture to a people-first culture was the most important thing happening in the cooperative world. He talked about it plainly, the crew of three or four guys who are irreplaceable, the wife at home waiting, the soccer game after the shift. He believed that when you understand your why, safety stops being a rule and starts being a commitment. He also believed that leadership is not a title. It is a price you pay, a willingness to set aside your own interests long enough to bring someone else to a higher level.

Ken’s legendary 10-10-2-2 (come home with ten fingers, ten toes, two arms, and two legs) will live in the consciousness of electric cooperatives for generations.

Ken unexpectedly passed away two days after this conversation was recorded.

What he left behind is a body of work, a conference that will keep growing, and a way of thinking about safety that has shaped how cooperatives across the country show up for their people. This episode is our conversation, exactly as it happened.

Featured topics:

• Why leadership has to be at the center of any real safety culture

• The price of leadership and what it actually costs

• Technology, complacency, and the question of who owns who

• The aging grid and what Americans may have to rethink

• What 25 years in the cooperative world taught him about legacy

After the interview, we appended tributes submitted by some of the people Ken worked with who were deeply impacted by him.

The cooperative community lost one of its best. Ken will be deeply missed by everyone whose life he touched.

May this episode serve as a humble tribute to a man who lived for others. And may we strive to follow his example.