HAY RIVER - David Axford is settling into his new position as a key player in the power generation and supply system in the NWT.

David Axford: new NTPC president says he has a team-based management style. - photo courtesy of NTPC

Axford was named to a three-year appointment in December as president and chief executive officer of Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC), NT Hydro Corporation and their subsidiaries.

The opportunity and challenges in the NWT attracted him to the position, he said. "When I took a look at where the utility was and where the territory was in terms of the potential of the future, I just came around to the point of saying, 'You know what? I need to be part of that.'"

Axford, 54, believes he can have a positive effect in his new role.

"I've spent a lot of years in electricity and I've put a lot of thought into how does it work or how could it work within society," he said.

Axford holds an MBA from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Waterloo.

During a 29-year professional career, he has held many senior leadership positions in the energy, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, mostly in Alberta and to a lesser extent in his home province of Ontario.

Before coming North, he was senior vice-president for project management with Tonbridge Power Inc. and was responsible for developing a 230-kilovolt transmission line connecting Montana to the Alberta grid.

On the generation side, he was once responsible for, among other things, constructing and operating a 70-megawatt wind farm in Alberta.

His new position in the NWT has its own challenges.

"We're very special up here in the North insomuch as we have a very large territory and not a large population, yet we want to be able to supply all communities as reliably as any of the other communities," he said. "So trying to do that in an effective way is a challenge."

Axford is still working on developing goals and priorities in his new position.

"But some of the ones that go without saying are trying to manage the whole rate structure and rate increases so that we don't impact people negatively and to try to improve reliability," he said.

Axford said he has seen studies suggesting there are a couple of thousand of megawatts worth of hydro potential in the NWT.

"Now not all of that would make sense, some of it due to its location, some of it due to the type of generation," he said. "But I certainly believe that the Northwest Territories has an opportunity to develop much more generation than it currently has."

That might include alternative forms of energy.

"I see possibilities there," Axford said. "The biggest challenge with regard to alternative energy in the North is being able to find types of alternative energy that are most economically scalable for the size of our territory."

The new president and CEO described his management style as a team-based approach, which gives a lot of responsibility and autonomy to members of the team.

"I don't need to be involved in every single activity, but I have to have a high degree of expectation that it is being managed appropriately by the member of the team," he explained.

Axford enjoys working with the corporation's employees and helping the organizations reach higher performance levels.

"I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of that," he said. "I also enjoy working with our customers because they are the reason that we're here. We're not here just to do it for the fun of it. We are here because of the customers, so we want to make sure that we do a good job."

Axford and his wife, Michelle, will reside in Hay River, where the Power Corporation's headquarters is located.

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