Bachelor of Science , Business Administration

MBA

C. John Wilder, 47, is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of TXU Corp., one of the nation’s largest electric energy companies, and frequently speaks and has published on energy policy and market-based solutions to energy issues. He joined TXU in late February 2004 as the first external CEO in the company’s 120-year history and was elected chairman of the board in May 2005. He also serves as a director of TXU Corp. and various TXU subsidiaries. Wilder is spearheading TXU’s turnaround by guiding a restructuring and operational-improvement program aimed at transforming TXU from a traditional utility to a high-performance industrial company within five years. During Wilder’s first year of leadership, TXU tended to the basics: improving customer service, operations and the financial strength of the company. Today, TXU’s financial flexibility, returns and earning power are significantly better and headed to top-quartile performance. The businesses are also driving a high-performance ethic deep into their operations and have identified improvements that are projected to grow operating earnings per share by more than 300% between 2003 and 2005. The first step in TXU’s financial recovery was to reshape the business portfolio, allowing an exclusive focus on TXU’s three core Texas electric businesses. The restructuring program sharply increased shareholder returns, generating $10 billion in market value for the company’s owners. In addition to a focus on financial recovery, Wilder is also shepherding a comprehensive program to improve the businesses’ performance. This program identified the potential for $1.25 billion of pretax earnings improvement by 2007. An innovative business processing partnership was formed called Capgemini Energy, which is improving back-office functions and producing dramatic breakthroughs in customer service. By the end of 2004, the time to answer customers’ calls dropped from a high of 300-plus seconds to an average of just 10 seconds, which is world class by any standard. The TXU Operating System, another first of its kind in the industry, is applying lean manufacturing principles at the lignite plants to eliminate waste and fundamentally change work processes. It has already dramatically improved operations, and last year, the nuclear and lignite generation fleets achieved record production. Transmission and distribution reliability also improved and is expected to reach top quartile by 2006. The hard work to become a high-performance industrial company continues today, with a particular emphasis near term on transforming TXU’s mindset, culture, processes and performance ethic. Wilder started in the energy business in Texas 25 years ago with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies. After serving as chief executive officer of Shell Capital in London, Wilder was hired as chief financial officer in 1998 at Entergy Corporation and was a member of the senior management team that drove total financial and operational turnaround efforts, spawned new businesses, executed transactions worth billions of dollars and earned the company Business Week’s Global Energy Company of the Year in 2003. At TXU, Wilder is now exhibiting the same drive and passion that earned him recognition as Institutional Investor’s “Best CFO in America” in the utilities industry for 2003 and runner-up for “Best CEO in America” and “Best CEO” in the utilities industry in 2004. He was recently named “Best Investor Relations by a Chairman, President or CEO” by Investor Relations Magazine and was a finalist for CBS MarketWatch’s annual CEO of the year award. Active in community service and professional organizations throughout his career, Wilder is a member of the World Economic Forum, which is the foremost global community of business, political, intellectual and other leaders committed to improving the world. He is also a member of the Edison Electric Institute. Wilder is especially committed to promoting higher education. He is on the advisory bodies of the McCombs School of Business at the University of