Matthew Larson (’18): Senior Communications Specialist in the Energy Industry

“The IWP education is applicable to a broad range of career possibilities.”
-Matthew Larson (’18)

Matthew Larson (’18) came to IWP with an interest in diplomacy. After focusing on public diplomacy during his M.A. program in Statecraft and International Affairs, he has been using these skills in his communications work at Eversource, New England’s largest public utility company.

Here, he tells us about his work in the international nonprofit realm, his coordination of global programs for the University of Connecticut, his current work at Eversource, and how his IWP education has been applicable throughout.

Please tell us about your background and why you decided to attend IWP.

While I was an undergrad at the College of the Holy Cross, I spent some time studying abroad and became interested in the world of diplomacy. Around the same time, the Diplomat in Residence for the New England area came to campus to speak with us about working for the State Department, which further piqued my curiosity.

When I began looking for graduate schools, I looked for international relations programs in Washington, D.C. and was fortunate to find and be accepted to The Institute of World Politics. The small class sizes led by scholar/practitioners was a draw.

You worked at Meridian International Center while studying at IWP. What was that like?

Meridian administers the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and is conveniently located right up the street from IWP. I worked in External Affairs programming and communications for the organization during the day and studied at IWP at night.

At Meridian, I worked for Ambassador Stuart Holliday, former United States Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations. He knew Amb. Tom Melady, who had taught at IWP for many years. Interconnections like this really demonstrate the reach of the school. This shows one of the ways that having practitioners as faculty members not only benefits students’ knowledge, but it also helps with navigating networks.

Please tell us a little about working in the Office of Global Affairs at the University of Connecticut after your IWP graduation.

Our office was the university’s gateway to the world. It manages international student and scholar services, international faculty research, and partnerships abroad to facilitate student study abroad programs. I started out in the partnerships office, managing contracts and agreements between institutions. I grew into more of a communications role, administering the website and social media presence. It was exciting to see my home state’s flagship university which was historically an agricultural school grow its global presence.

UConn is a big university, and it was a challenge for our team to get our arms around the scope of the university’s international interactions. With it being such a large university system made of many different departments and different faculty members, things can get siloed in a way that information sharing becomes difficult.

At IWP, I learned the importance of using the different instruments of diplomacy and communication, and I applied those lessons (on a much smaller scale) in my work at UConn. I would use different communication channels based on different situations and help ensure that everyone was working together in a cohesive manner to achieve our overall goals.

Are you using these arts of diplomacy now in your corporate communications work at Eversource?

My role is central and involves synthesizing information and translating specific departmental or technical information for a wider general audience. Using all the instruments of diplomacy is a key factor that I think about in my day-to-day work.

I support the transmission side of the business. We have a number of really cool projects all over our service territory. Our team uses the full “orchestra” of tools available to make our projects a success – engaging with communities impacted by our work, working with regulators and state agencies for approvals, and more. We are always trying to find the best and most effective messaging to ensure our customers and local communities understand the benefits of our work, and I think those efforts dovetail with themes that I have learned at IWP. It has been interesting for me to use those skills in my current role.

What does your day-to-day work look like?

A lot of my work is done in an effort to help tell the story of our work to the public so that they understand the wider role we are playing to ensure that our customers have reliable, affordable energy. I primarily focus on internal communications, writing reports on transmission projects, as well as creating our internal newsletter and drafting content for external press releases and social media. I also look for opportunities for our senior leadership to present our work at area conferences and roundtables which helps generate a lot of internal and external collaboration in this innovative space.

When people turn on their lights, they usually don’t think about the electric grid, but it is one of the largest and most complex machines ever invented. It takes a lot to keep it operational and reliable.

What are some of the challenges to providing consistent electricity?

It might come as a surprise to most people, but weather has an outsized impact on our operations. Our transmission and distribution infrastructure involves aging wooden poles above the ground across our service territory, which includes New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut (all heavily wooded states). Whenever a tree falls and hits a wire, that’s usually the main cause of a power outage.

New England usually experiences severe weather events during hurricane season as well as winter snow and ice storms, but this year we’ve mobilized due to an earthquake, wildfires, and a bridge collapse over an underground transmission line.

What happens on your end during emergencies like this?

During weather events where there are possible power outages, the entire company is on call. We bring together all the representatives from the different sides of the business, and we work together to get everyone’s power back on as soon as possible.

I serve as the communications officer for the state of Connecticut, which means I synthesize information from across the impacted areas and write the briefing documents to communicate with the state agencies and let regulators know where we are in the restoration process.

What are your plans for the future?

I plan to stay at Eversource for the foreseeable future. I enjoy my job because of the spirit of teamwork, especially during these big storms. I like having a set role that also allows me to interact with other sides of the business.

I am always learning something new. It has been interesting not only to further refine communications skills during high-pressure events like storms, but it’s fascinating to see the landscape of new technologies and new sources of energy that are interconnecting with the grid. Eversource is brimming with innovation as we meet our energy challenges head on.

I have been fortunate in my career to have great teams and great mentors. I hope that is something I can eventually pass on throughout my career.