El Paso Electric has a new chief financial officer.
El Paso native Robert Norris has replaced Lisa Budtke, who in early 2024 became El Paso Electric’s first woman to hold the important financial leadership position in the 124-year-old company’s history.
Budtke, CFO for less than two years, left the company on Oct. 31 “to pursue her next chapter,” according to a company news release. She worked at EPE for 15 years.
Norris, for the past 1 year and 10 months, has been president and CFO of Colorado-based AMP Robotics, which builds and operates artificial intelligence-powered trash-recycling systems.
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He also previously was CFO for about two years at VoltaGrid, a Houston company that develops power-generation systems for data centers and other industries.
Norris, 46, is a graduate of Franklin High School in West El Paso. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master of business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
EPE’s chief financial officer, part of the company’s 10-person executive leadership team, oversees its accounting, cash management, financial planning, financial systems, internal auditing and information technology departments.
The company had electric sales of $1.05 billion, after fuel costs and solar credits are subtracted, and a profit of $172 million in 2024, the latest financial data available.
It has about 465,000 customers in West Texas and southern New Mexico, and employs about 1,100 people.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso native Robert Norris is El Paso Electric’s new chief financial officer
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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