K arl McDermott, University of Illinois at Springfield
Ameren Endowed Professor in Business and Government
Dr. Karl McDermott, a leading expert on public utility economics and utility regulation, arrived in 2008 at the University of Illinois at Springfield to become the new Ameren Endowed Professor in Business and Government, a professorship that is housed in the College of Business and Management. Through his Ameren professorship, McDermott’s duties include teaching, conducting research and facilitating lectures and seminars for corporate, political and civic leaders.
Previously, he served in numerous roles within the field of public utility economics, including working on the Illinois Commerce Commission during the Gov. Jim Edgar administration, founding the private, not-for-profit Center for Regulatory Studies at Illinois State University and traveling the world as a regulation consultant.
Through funds provided by the Ameren professorship, McDermott has hired three research assistants, will bring on board a graduate assistant, and has traveled around the region to promote the public utility economics focus at UIS. “One of the things I’m trying to do is reach out to the public utility community, both companies and regulators, and let them know that we’re in the market and turning out students,” he said.
McDermott has created the Center for Business and Regulation at UIS within the College, which is a major step for UIS’ role in the field of utility economics. “It’s a place where I hope we can get research money and help try to solve some of the public policy problems. It will also hopefully be part of the MBA program, so we’re hoping to have a sequence in regulation so students can get a concentration in regulation or even a certificate.”
The Center for Business and Regulation has been busy, hosting the American Gas Association annual meeting in Chicago this summer. Forty nine students from across the county and two of his research assistants attended. McDermott, who taught some of the classes, said the meeting was informational and useful for the students to network. By meeting people in the industry, it could “help them with job prospects, so it has a lot of different angles,” McDermott said.
“We need more students who are interested in regulation,” he added. “This is a potential field for advancing their careers. Regulation can involve all aspects of management, and not just management but also public affairs, public policy, history and other aspects. Hopefully we can get a program up and running and turn out some students. The more we do that, the more utilities and government agencies will come looking for us to supply them with people for jobs.”
Additionally, McDermott is teaching an ECCE (Engaged Citizenship Common Experience) class — Accounting 454 ― on American economy and regulation’s role in the American economy. “Through this class, we’re trying to introduce our students to a wide range of ways in which regulations actually impact our lives. I tell students ‘it's from the cradle to the grave — your pediatrician is regulated all the way to your undertaker, and almost everything in between.’ There are a lot of ideas that can pop out and a lot of job opportunities. In today’s economy, where what we’ve seen is the potential failure of a free market process that didn’t have enough regulations to kind of reign it in, this all of a sudden makes the idea of studying regulations that much more important for the students. So they may see this as way of having job opportunities, and I’d like to encourage that.”