Jean Blanc was working as a purchasing manager at International Paper Company when a Pennsylvania-based recruiter reached out to him about an opportunity at PPL Electric Utilities in Allentown. “It was a lot to consider at the time.
I was living in Pensacola, FL, and was part of IP's Leadership Development Program,” says Blanc. “Although I loved the lifestyle that the Emerald Coast of Florida offered, I missed being on the innovation side. I had a Senior R&D with the largest robotics and automation company in the world, so paper making just didn't cut it. I also saw it as a full-circle moment, as all the companies I've ever worked for were large stakeholders in the electric utility industry.” Blanc says that the Lehigh Valley reminded him of how he grew up and was only a short trip from his hometown of Boston, MA.
“When I lived in the Lehigh Valley, I loved the combination of grit and future-forward thinking,” he says. “There's lots of growth potential, and I've met some incredible people doing phenomenal things. There's something for everyone, and its proximity to the mountains, big cities and parks makes it a hidden gem.”
During his time at PPL, Blanc worked in standards asset management investment strategy and operations. “I had a phenomenal work experience at PPL,” he says. “PPL has a corporate environment where people really care about safety and quality of work and where C-suite leaders are accessible to the employees, driving continuous improvement.” Blanc says his time there also allowed him to stretch beyond his comfort zone and lead in areas where his core values aligned with theirs, such as performance excellence in innovation, corporate citizenship, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Now, Blanc leads the Distribution Integrity Management Programs and Gas R&D Innovation at PECO, an Exelon company, headquartered in Philadelphia. “Transitioning from PPL to PECO was the smoothest professional transition I've ever made,” he says. “The role mirrors what I did at PPL, just on a bigger scale. Exelon is the largest domestic electric parent company and regulated electric utility.”
When asked his advice for someone struggling to reach their professional ambitions, Blanc says not to think of your goals as binary. “One of the revelations I got working in data analytics is the incremental productivity gains and importantly losses that accumulate over time,” he shares. “Changing your environment as well as the system you have in place to execute the goal also helps.”
Published as "Voices of the Valley" in the March 2022 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
