Meet KMEA’s New General Manager

Hello, I’m Paul Mahlberg, your new General Manager here at KMEA/KMGA and I’d like to introduce myself and give you a little of my background. I’m originally from Harlan, Iowa – a community of approximately 5,000 people in the southwest part of the State. I attended college at Iowa State University and received a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering in 1988.

I got my career start in Columbus, Nebraska working for the engineering consulting firm R.W. Beck and Associates (which was eventually bought out by SAIC and then Leidos). At Beck, my work assignments were nearly all for municipal utilities and public power districts with a focus on cost of service and rate studies, economic feasibility analysis, risk analysis and other general consulting work. After 8 years at Beck, I moved to the City of Independence, Missouri working for their Power & Light Department. During my nearly 20 years at IPL, I worked in the areas of power supply planning, rates and operations and eventually moving into the Deputy Director position for the last six years with responsibilities to oversee the full operation of the utility.

I’ve been married to my beautiful wife, Susie, for over 26 years. She is from the small town of Earling, Iowa and also attended Iowa State University, receiving a degree in graphic design. Today, she works from home designing electronic newsletters. We have three daughters – our two oldest both recently took jobs in Colorado. Alyssa will start a new job in September working for an ad agency in Superior and Jenna just started her first job in Colorado Springs working as an occupational therapist. Our youngest, Annie, just started her third year of college working on an education degree. Outside of the office, Susie and I enjoy spending time with our families, working on home projects and following our favorite sports teams – Cyclones, Royals and Chiefs. Yes, I’ll admit it up front – none of the Kansas schools are on our favorite teams list, but we do root for the original Big Eight schools when they’re not playing the Cyclones.

On the more serious side, I’m very thankful for this opportunity to be your new General Manager and very excited to work with you and our staff to continue the successes of this organization and looking for ways for us to serve you in the best possible way. I hope to get to sit down with each of you in the near future so I can get to know you and your communities better.

In the meantime, feel free to give me a call if you would like to talk (913-660-0234 or mahlberg@kmea.com).

Paul