Sephir Hamilton joined Seattle City Light on April 15, filling the Chief of Staff role that has recently been vacant. He comes to the utility from Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Sephir Hamilton
Sephir Hamilton joined Seattle City Light on April 15, filling the Chief of Staff role that has recently been vacant. He comes to the utility from Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Hamilton joins the utility’s seven-member Executive Management Team, and will oversee government relations, legal affairs, communications, and external affairs.
“Sephir has a diverse background and one well-suited for City Light’s Chief of Staff position,” Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. “He has been able to help organizations promote renewables and enhance energy efficiency, while also finding operational efficiencies that reduce waste and improve customer satisfaction. We are excited to have him join our team as we move into the first year of implementing our strategic plan initiatives and seek operational efficiencies.”
“To me, energy efficiency and organizational efficiency are similar. With each, we need to identify waste and eliminate it by working together toward a common cause. For Seattle City Light, with such a proud history as a publicly-owned utility, our cause is clear: providing our customers with the best service possible,” Hamilton said. “I love rolling up my sleeves and doing the work needed for the customer – whether that takes me into the field with a line crew, answering customer questions on the phone, or preparing critical documents for our policymakers. During my first week here, I’ve already visited the dams on the Skagit River and volunteered with a City Light team cleaning up the Duwamish. I am excited to join this well-regarded utility and the proud people of Seattle who own it.”
At Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Hamilton served as Director of Operational Excellence in charge of a company-wide continuous improvement effort that produced millions of dollars in operational efficiencies over two years. He also analyzed and invested in wind, biomass, solar, combined heat and power (CHP) and landfill gas energy projects for Central Hudson as an Engineer and Investment Officer.
He started his career with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Mass., where he worked on energy- efficiency standards for the U.S. Department of Energy. He holds a master of business administration degree from Cornell University, a master of science degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Clarkson University.
Hamilton lives in West Seattle, where his wife, Patricia, and two young sons, Lukas and Peter, will join him soon. While in Poughkeepsie, he served on the boards of directors at the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse and at St. Francis Hospital. In his spare time, he enjoys taking photographs, and playing golf and ice hockey.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.