Erroll B. Davis, Jr.

1944–

University administrator, executive

As one of the first African Americans to hold a top-level post in the utilities industry, Erroll B. Davis, Jr. guided Alliant Energy Corp. through a period of expansion and financial stability. While doing so, he gained a strong appreciation for the importance of education, especially for minorities historically denied access to the best schools. This commitment to education led to a late-career shift from the corporate boardroom into the halls of academia, where Davis began applying his considerable administrative skill as chancellor of the University System of Georgia system in 2006.

Erroll Brown Davis, Jr. was born on August 5, 1944, and grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While he had a close relationship with his parents, Erroll Sr. and Eleanor, his strongest influence as a child was his grandfather, John Boykin, a Georgia farmer who had transplanted to Pittsburgh and worked as a chauffeur. Davis was an academic standout from an early age. He graduated from high school at age 16. He then worked his way through Carnegie-Mellon University, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Carnegie-Mellon in 1965 at the age of 20. He moved to Chicago for graduate school, receiving a Masters degree in finance from the University of Chicago in 1967. After finishing his schooling, Davis spent two years as an Army officer during the Vietnam War, though he never saw action outside of the United States. He married his seventh grade sweetheart Elaine, and started preparing for his business career.

In 1969 Davis landed a finance job with Ford Motor Company in Detroit. He worked for Ford until 1973, when he left for position in Rochester, New York with Xerox Corporation, where her served until 1978. At Xerox, his focus was on strategic financial planning. That year, Davis was recruited by Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), a utility based in Madison, Wisconsin, for a position in corporate finance. He originally planned to stick with WPL for just a few years, then move on to a bigger company. "Unfortunately, they kept promoting me and ruining my game plan," Davis joked in a July 2005 Wisconsin State Journal article.

Davis was quoted in a February 2006 interview with the Wisconsin State Journal as saying that he never planned on being CEO. "I didn't take any particular steps that were focused on being CEO," he was quoted as saying. "My focus was to do the job I was given to the best of my ability. I continued to do well in my positions and continued to get promoted." Planned or not, his rise to the CEO ranks was relatively swift. Over the next 12 years, Davis climbed the ladder steadily at WPL. He became executive vice president in 1984, president in 1987, and chief operating officer in 1988. In 1990 he was named president and CEO of WPL's parent company, WPL Holdings, Inc., which in addition to the utility company owned Heartland Development Corp., a subsidiary involved in affordable housing development, energy, and environmental services in the United States and Mexico. By this time, Davis was gaining widespread recognition for his managerial skill. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business in 1993. He also received a Bronze Medal in Financial World's "CEO of the Year" competition that year.

While his star was rising in the corporate world, Davis was also developing a keen interest in higher education. He served on the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin from 1987 to 1994. In 1989 he became a lifetime member of the Carnegie Mellon board of trustees, serving as chair for several years. Under Davis' direction, two ambitious diversity programs were launched at Carnegie Mellon. One focused on high school upper classmen in an effort to increase the number of minority students qualified to attend elite colleges. The other was aimed at closing the gender gap in computer science by making the curriculum more attractive to high school girls. Davis also served for a time on the board of trustees of his other alma mater, the University of Chicago.

A November 1994 profile in Ebony noted that Davis stood out as one of the very few high-ranking African American's in the utilities industry. The article called Davis the "first Black to head a Business Week 1000 company and reportedly the only Black CEO of a major public power utility…." Over the next decade, Davis continued to stand out.

In 1998 WPL merged with two Iowa-based utility companies, Interstate Power Co. and IES Industries, to create a new entity, Alliant Energy Corporation. Davis took the lead in shepherding the company through the merger process, and was tapped as Alliant's first CEO and president. From June of 2002 to June of 2003 Davis served as chair of the board of directors of the Edison Electric Institute, the nationwide association of shareholder-owned electric utility companies. In 2004 he was elected to the U. S. Olympic Committee (USOC) Board, where he sought to improve the USOC's image, which had been stained by scandal in recent years. Through this period, Davis continued to rack up an impressive collection of honors and awards. In 2002 Fortune magazine listed him as one of the "50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America." He was the recipient of the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2004. He was named one of the "75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America" by Black Enterprise magazine in 2005.

In 2005 Davis announced that he was retiring from Alliant Energy, though he planned to retain his role as chair of Alliant's board. Even as he announced his retirement, few expected that Davis would be spending much time in his rocking chair. In addition to his work in the Olympic movement, Davis was still serving on numerous corporate boards of directors, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Seventh District Advisory Council, and actively pursuing his own philanthropic endeavors through the Davis Family Foundation, which he and Elaine had established a decade earlier.

At a Glance …

Born Erroll Brown Davis, Jr. on August 5, 1944, in 'Pittsburgh, PA; married Elaine E. Casey, 1968; children: Christopher and Whitney. Education: Carnegie-Mellon University, BS, engineering, 1965; University of Chicago, MBA, finance, 1967.

Career: Fort Motor Co., finance staff, 1969–73; Xerox Corp., finance staff, 1973–78; Wisconsin Power and Light Co., vice president finance, 1978–82, vice president finance and public affairs, 1982–84, executive vice president, 1984–87, president, 1987, CEO, 1988–98; WPH Holdings, president, 1990–98; Alliant Energy Corp., president and CEO, 1998–2005, chairman, 2000–05; University System of Georgia, chancellor, 2006–.

Memberships: United Way of Dane County Board of Directors, 1984–89; University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1987–94; Carnegie-Mellon University Board of Trustees, life member; Edison Electric Institute Board of Directors; Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Advisory Board; United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors, 2004–.

Awards: Black Engineer of the Year, 1988; Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 1993; Bronze Medal, Financial World CEO of the Year competition, 1993; Ellis Island Medal of Honor, 2001; Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America, 2002; Carnegie Mellon Alumni Distinguished Service Award, 2004; Black Enterprise's 75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America, 2005.

Addresses: Office—Office of the Chancellor, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, 270 Washington Street, SW, Suite 7025, Atlanta, GA 30334.

Davis' so-called retirement did not last long. In December of 2005 it was announced that he would take over as chancellor of the University System of Georgia, making him the first African American to hold the job on a permanent basis, and, perhaps more significantly, marking a triumphant return to the state where just a couple of generations earlier his family had eked out a modest living as farmers. Upon assuming his new job in February of 2006, Davis took charge of a statewide system of 35 pubic colleges and universities serving 253,500 students, employing 35,000 faculty and staff, and with an annual budget of about $5 billion. Davis assumed his new role with a concrete goal in mind. As he told the Gwinnett Daily Post: "If education is to be effective, it has to be effective for everyone. I think that's the key to a vibrant middle class." Davis seemed primed to make his goal a reality.

Sources

Periodicals

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 11, 2005, p. A1.

Capital Times (Madison, WI), August 23, 2004, p. 1D.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, December 29, 2005, p. 10.

Ebony, November 1994, p. 70.

Florida Times Union, December 22, 2005, p. B1.

Wisconsin State Journal, July 24, 2005, p. C1; February 1, 2006, p. 45.

On-line

"Errol Davis Biography," University System of Georgia, www.usg.edu/chancellor/bio/davis_bio.pdf (August 3, 2006).

"Errol Davis Biography," United States Olympic Committee, http://usocpressbox.org/usoc/pressbox.nsf/(staticreports)/Breaking+News/$File/ErrollDavis.pdf?Open (August 3, 2006).

"New University System Chancellor Visits Georgia Gwinnett College," Gwinnett Daily Post, www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_subchannel_id=&url_article_id=11664&change_well_id=2 (August 3, 2006).