From the Top with CEO Patrick Grace

It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time for our annual “yearbook” edition of the Co-op News. As you can see beginning on page 8, our team has grown quite a bit, and we continue to create jobs here in central Oklahoma. The best part? All the friendly faces you see are dedicated to our mission of serving reliable, affordable service to our members and subscribers.

We were honored to be named one of the Journal Record’s Best Places to Work in August setting us apart as a business that truly invests in the well-being of our employees. It’s something we take great pride in, and it’s nice that our employees — both tenured and newer — echo the sentiment I’ve always had that OEC is a great place to work.

As we continue to grow, the need to hire skilled, knowledgeable employees has evolved. We used to hire at entry level positions, then provided opportunity for growth depending on the employee’s skills and desires. Creating an internet company has changed that perception and led to more specific needs in an industry to which we are still fairly new. Because of that, we have a very good, diverse group of applicants, which allows us to add unique talents to our team.

Whether our employees are helping members over the phone, connecting your home to our lightning fast broadband network, replacing your outdoor light, trimming trees around power lines or anything in between, you can be sure they're doing so as trained, knowledgeable folks who come to work every day to serve you to the best of their ability. We are not about cutting corners or generating profits for shareholders — we are here to provide you with safe, reliable, affordable electricity and high-speed internet.

If you recognize any of the faces on the pages of this month's Co-op News, be sure to thank them for keeping your lights on and your internet running. They do it with joy, and it's a pleasure to work with each of them.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your family from all of us at OEC.