Matthew Weldon
Candidate for Director District 3

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I grew up an only child in a 750 person town in southern Colorado where my mother worked at the local hospital and my father worked in law enforcement. I decided a technical education would be the surest path to opportunity and new sights. I attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1988. But before entering industry, I took a detour that informed what followed.

I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Honduras during what proved an educational if turbulent time. I supervised the construction of 13 gravity-fed potable water distribution systems with associated sanitation improvement in rural communities. The water projects were typically the first public civil infrastructure built in those towns or the second if built after a school building. It was hands-on, laborious, consequential work, and it gave me a strong appreciation for what thoughtful investment in community infrastructure can mean for people's lives.

After returning to the US, I earned a graduate degree from the University of California at Davis. The most significant outcome of graduate school wasn't academic — it was meeting my wife, Minda. Her career as an epidemiologist brought us to Austin, and I entered the semiconductor manufacturing industry which was booming in Central Texas at the time. Over a career spanning more than two decades, I worked in technology and process development, capital equipment design and deployment, consumables manufacturing, production distribution, and customer account management. Career advancement led to a six-year stint in Arizona before we returned to Austin for a startup specializing in metrology equipment. After that company was acquired, I spent several years contracting, and five years at the University of Texas supporting a federally funded research center focused on novel manufacturing equipment development.

Throughout my career, I pursued a parallel interest in energy and sustainability through volunteer work. I served on the boards of the Texas Solar Energy Society and Solar Austin, and my efforts on Austin municipal energy policy led to an appointment with the City of Austin's Electric Utility Commission, which provides oversight for Austin Energy. I served from 2018 to 2022.

Two things stand out from that experience. First, Austin Energy has built one of the most diversified generation portfolios in Texas while keeping mean residential costs in the lowest decile statewide — an intentional and laudable combination. Second, my term included Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, which was a defining event for many involved in Texas energy. I had valuable vantage points during the storm, given the metaphoric and physical ties to Austin Energy and the PEC. Both utilities outperformed many peers in different ways and for different reasons. The lessons I drew from that experience are ones I rarely hear reflected in the media coverage that followed, and they inform how I think about grid resilience, cooperative governance, and the obligations utilities have to their members.

Minda and I have lived in our current home in PEC District 3 for 22 years. I am now semi-retired, our three sons are grown and launched into their own lives, and I have the time, focus, and motivation to serve. I have no financial ties, employment relationships, or obligations to any entity involved in energy production, transmission, or retail service. Every hour I have spent engaged on energy market and policy topics has been as a volunteer, motivated by a desire to serve end consumers and our communities. That is who PEC exists to serve, and it is the only constituency I would bring to the boardroom.

I would be honored to be entrusted with your vote, and I welcome any conversation about the cooperative, your concerns, and your hopes for its future.

— Matt Weldon 9808 Grand Oak Dr., Austin TX 78750