Mike Chesser joined the company in October 2003 as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer after a distinguished career in the utility industry that began at Baltimore Gas and Electric. He previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Atlantic Energy, Inc., Chairman and CEO of Itron (an automated meter supplier to the utility industry), and President and CEO at GPU Energy, an electric utility serving New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Great Plains Energy, he was Chairman and CEO of United Water, which owns and operates several regulated water utilities along with its contract operations.

Mike has taken a national role in energy technologies through his chairmanship of the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Board of Directors. Mike is also a member of the executive committee of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and chair of the Energy Efficiency Task Force, which is looking for ways to make energy efficiency a viable alternative for utilities around the country.

Active in the business community, Mike serves as a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute (MRI) and the Committee for Economic Development (CED) in Washington D.C., as well as co-chair of the CED’s Sub-Committee on Education, and serves on the Advisory Committee of the NACD Heartland Chapter.

Mike is also active in the Kansas City area community serving as a trustee of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is chairman of the board for the Partnership for Children and the Kansas City Economic Development Council. He also serves on the Early Learning Leadership Board of the Mid-America Regional Council and is a member of the Kansas Business Education Partnership.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech; a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from Loyola College, Baltimore; and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. He is also an Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni of Georgia Tech.