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John DiStasio, assistant general manager for Energy Delivery & Customer Service, has been named to succeed Jan Schori as SMUD’s general manager.

DiStasio, a 27-year SMUD veteran, verbally accepted the offer from the SMUD Board of Directors Thursday night to fill the GM position after a national search. The appointment will not be finalized until a contract is signed and the Board issues a formal approval at its June 19 meeting. DiStasio would assume his new position June 20.

“By making their selection from among the internal candidates, I think the Board validated the excellent work of this organization and its employees,” DiStasio said. “It’s a recognition that we have really been able to step up and meet the challenges that confront us.”

DiStasio said he intends to position SMUD for the future through building upon what has been accomplished in the past. “We will still be focused on the customer, the community and our employees,” he said. “I want Sacramento to continue to reap the dividends of having SMUD as a community-owned utility.”

Larry Carr, president of SMUD’s Board of Directors, said that after many interviews and much deliberation, DiStasio emerged as the best choice among a field of strong candidates. “Both internally and externally we had many highly qualified people to choose from,” Carr said. “But it became clear that John was the best fit to take us to the next level.”

DiStasio moves to SMUD’s top post after serving as assistant general manager since December 2000. In that role he was responsible for overseeing SMUD’s retail operations, including customer service, energy delivery, program development and communications, energy-efficiency and pricing.

During his tenure as assistant general manager SMUD won a string of customer service honors, including being named by J.D. Power and Associates in February as having the nation’s highest satisfaction rating among business customers.

From 1997 to 2000, he headed Distribution Services, with responsibility for the SMUD energy delivery process. DiStasio joined SMUD in 1981 as a buyer for the District’s purchasing department.

In addition to his duties at SMUD, DiStasio is an executive board member of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce; vice-chair of LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development); president of the board of the Northwest Public Power Association; a board member of the North State Building Association; and a member of the Los Rios Foundation Board.

DiStasio earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior from the University of San Francisco.