Prior to joining 1803 as its Chief Executive Officer, Brian Hobbs was a Partner with Pain Garland and Hobbs, LLP law firm. Areas of practice include state regulatory work and power supply issues for multiple electric cooperatives, general counsel for one distribution cooperative, eminent domain, general practice involving, real estate, estate planning, probate, business, contract, and general law.

 

For the last three years, Brian provided consulting and legal work for five distribution cooperatives located in Louisiana as part of a team that has developed 1803 Electric Cooperative. In that role, he arranged financing, developed member wholesale power contracts, identified power supply resources, developed the wholesale rate, and obtained necessary state regulatory approvals.

 

Prior to private practice, Brian retired as Vice President, Legal and Corporate Services with Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, a generation and transmission cooperative serving 22 member distribution cooperatives providing retail electric service in parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico. The G&T cooperative owns coal, natural gas, and solar generation resources, contracted for numerous other gas, hydro, wind, and solar resources, owns more than 3,600 miles of transmission line and more than 350 sub and switch stations, serving more than 2,000 mW of load. Brian focused on contracting, project development, transactional issues, and managing the G&T’s legal issues and outside legal resources.

 

Brian provided senior management leadership for rates and revenue, information technology, human resources, regulatory compliance, risk management, safety and security, environmental compliance, marketing and communications, and Southwest Power Pool market interactions. While with the G&T, Brian was actively involved in efforts to transition and incorporate 4 new member distribution cooperatives located in New Mexico as the long-term wholesale power contract for each of the four cooperatives with an investor-owned utility. Brian retired after 40 years of service with the G&T.

 

Brian received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and his Juris Doctor magna cum laude from the Oklahoma City University School of Law. Brian has been active in various professional organizations. Brian occasionally runs a few cow-calf pairs on his land near Fort Cobb, Oklahoma and attempts to fish and golf when given the opportunity.