Career Experiences of a Power Engineer with John McWilliams

John McWilliams is the current Senior Innovation Engineer at Dairyland Power Cooperative in Wisconsin, USA and has been a member of the IEEE for 29 years. He received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1978. He then worked for 10 years for Westinghouse Electric Corp. as a Field Service Engineer. At Westinghouse he was the site manager for up to 40 engineers working on construction projects in Saudi Arabia. These projects included the Aramco Natural Gas Liquification Plant and the Petromin-Mobil Export Refinery near Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, the Petromin-Shell Export Refinery near Jubail, Saudi Arabia and the Royal Palaces Project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In 1988 he transitioned to the role of Regional Technical Manager for AVO International (Megger) and oversaw the technical sales for manufacturers of electrical test equipment. John managed sales offices from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand and worked from Dover, England, and manufacturing facilities covering Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

22 years ago, he joined Dairyland Power Cooperative as their Senior Innovation Engineer and oversaw planning, contract negotiations and development of generation projects including renewable energy projects and regulatory issues for energy efficiency, renewable energy and conventional generation. In 2011 he was the first ever to receive a Graduate Certificate in Biorenewable Resources from Iowa State University.