"Building a Brighter America Since 1992"
America’s First African American-owned Overhead & Underground Electric Distribution Contracting Holding Company
KB Stallworth is Chairman of the Board and Retired CEO of Utility Services of America, which along with being America’s first African American-owned overhead and underground electricity distribution services contractor, is a holding company for a diverse group of businesses, Utility Services of America was founded on Chairman Stallworth’s confidence in his ability to provide competitively priced and performed electric distribution line clearance, overhead and underground powerline construction, maintenance, emergency power restoration, storm and disaster response services to public utilities, municipalities, and rural electric co-operatives. The Chairman is the former Leader of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, its Public Policy Advisor Emeritus, founding Board Member and Chairman of the Black Caucus Foundation of Michigan, Founder of the Foundation Institute for Leadership, Founder and Chairman of Michigan’s African American Thought Leaders State Action Council, and 2017 Congressional Black Caucus Policy Conference, Michigan Delegation Committee Pinnacle Award Recipient.
Chairman Stallworth’s journey with Utility Services of America began in 1987 while serving as a contracted professional risk management consultant to the Chief Financial Officer of Detroit Edison, Les Loomis. As the nature of the services provided by Chairman Stallworth’s firm Stallworth & Lindebeck, required daily interaction with operations executives throughout the utility, Stallworth & Lindenbeck had the distinction of being the only outside consulting firm to maintain offices at Detroit Edison headquarters on the second floor Edison Plaza. Chairman Stallworth and his team at Stallworth & Lindenbeck were under contract to create customized cost-effective, risk management solutions in the form of large deductible and self-insured commercial risk policies that could be marketed to and underwritten in international markets.
In 1990, Detroit Edison President John Lobbia came to meet with Chairman Stallworth to ask him to consider organizing an electric line clearance firm in the aftermath of the loss of a discrimination class-action lawsuit. The request was driven by President Lobbia’s desire to achieve a measure of contractor diversity within Detroit Edison’s electric distribution operations, as part of a larger corporate goal of creating a more diverse and rate base reflective supply chain. The company would be the first African American-owned company of its kind; and as with all “racial breakthroughs”, would require a tenacious African American with the temperament to “win over” resistant utility employees and union craft labor. No promises or guarantees, just a commitment to attempt a three-year pilot in the line clearance area of electric distribution under the responsibility of DTE Vice President Ron May. Although periodic operations counsel would be available, all contracts would have to first be won in a competitive bid process and performed to specifications. Although all parties new the challenge before them was fomidable as it had never been done, the trio moved forward.
Chairman Stallworth was approached by President Lobbia with this challenge and opportunity because he was one of a limited number of Detroit Edison minority contractors that had a record of success in a non-traditional professional service area. He also was one of a few elite minority business owners contracting with Detroit Edison with the financial capability to invest $85,000 for each truck, $25,000 for each chipper and another $15,000 to tool each unit related to the pilot. Financial capacity would also have to be strong enough to finance the pilot’s operational fixed costs, and the expense of hiring both experienced management and union craft professionals. Although Chairman Stallworth would be on his own related to the capital expense associated with the pilot, Detroit Edison Vice President Ron May agreed to a ten-day billing cycle for competitively bid and won work performed, as a tool to assist Chairman Stallworth’s new company with cash-flow. The resulting success of the company and provision of groundbreaking opportunities for African Americans in electric distribution throughout America is a credit to Detroit Edison/DTE Energy.
