Rodan Energy Solutions helps make the grid greener
Since he joined Rodan Energy Solutions Inc. in late 2021, Martin Lebed says he’s noticed something unusual at the industry conferences he’s attended.
“I’m always the youngest person there,” he says. “That can be intimidating, but it also shows me that Rodan Energy has faith in me and is eager to help me with my long-term career goals.”
Lebed is a sales development representative with Rodan Energy, a leading North American energy management company with a focus on building a sustainable energy future.
After graduating from university, Lebed interned at a large financial institution, but decided it was not a good fit. So, when Rodan Energy had an opening in sales, he leaped at the opportunity.
He was excited, he says, by the prospect of being part of a company on the cutting edge of a growing and evolving industry. “Energy issues are going to become even more amplified, especially with the rapid growth of electric vehicles,” Lebed says.
“There’s a long-term need to keep the energy grid reliable and Rodan Energy has solutions that will help.”
President & CEO Paul Grod says the company attracts people who want to make the world a better place. That includes a cohort of second-career professionals, including former clients, who switched jobs to focus on making a sustainable energy future.
It’s a familiar path for Grod. In 2003, he was a lawyer with one of Toronto’s big Bay Street firms where he practised corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions law. That summer, an unusually high number of smog alerts pointed him in a new direction.
“I thought the orange haze was disgusting and I wanted to do something about it,” he recalls.
At the time, the Ontario government was deregulating and restructuring the province’s energy infrastructure and Grod reasoned that this meant opportunities for newcomers in the sector. With the purchase and renaming of a small metering services company, Rodan Energy was launched.
Based in Mississauga, Ont., the company has expanded while continually embracing change. Its experts in engineering, data analytics, energy markets and other fields bring a multi-disciplinary approach to developing a suite of solutions to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
They work collaboratively with large commercial and industrial energy users, as well as power distribution and generation companies, to help them operate more efficiently and cost effectively with minimal disruptions to their business.
“We’re a hotbed of innovation and not just for innovation’s sake,” Grod says. “Our success is tied to a relentless pursuit of delivering valuable solutions to our clients and to our mission – making sustainable, attainable.”
Employees share many of the solutions they develop for clients on the company’s Internal Learning Academy, an online portal that provides a wide range of training opportunities. It’s just one of the ways that Rodan Energy supports employees’ career growth and professional development.
“If you’re not learning, you’re not growing,” says Grod, adding that the company’s collaborative culture also means employees learn from one another. This includes himself and other executives who have an open-door policy, he says.
Lebed, whose responsibilities include keeping current and prospective customers informed about Rodan Energy’s evolving lines of business, uses both formal and informal methods to keep himself abreast of developments.
“All my co-workers, not only those on the sales team, are aligned and support each other,” he says. “People are also receptive to my ideas and opinions.”
“It makes me feel appreciated and that I’m a valuable member of the team.”