An Exit Interview with Tim Licitra

Following the announcement that Tim Licitra would be leaving his post as Executive Director at IES, Tim and I sat down to reflect on his time there and his plans for the future.

Randy: You’ve been at IES now for six years, what would you say is your biggest accomplishment?

Tim: Without a doubt, the biggest accomplishment is the team I will be leaving behind. The staff with their skillsets is truly night and day from when I started at IES. I will surely miss the camaraderie. The team is so great to work with and there is so much history.

Randy: IES has definitely changed a lot from when you started. Can you tell me about the technology changes that you have implemented?

Tim: We have definitely tried to modernize the technology that we use. As a non-profit organization, we weren’t where we thought we should be. Transitioning from a physical handbook to the digitized Lighting Library was a tremendous accomplishment for the entire IES team. A digital version is more accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Randy: How are the sections doing during COVID-19? Has that new shift in technology affected them at all?

Tim: It’s been difficult. All the sections closed down at least for a while during the pandemic, but it has also been great to see sections stepping up and sharing their resources and ideas with each other. On the bright side, many sections have found they can achieve higher attendance with the virtual format.

Randy: When LightFair takes place this October it will mark the first LightFair in over two years. Obviously that conference is a huge revenue stream for IES—can you tell me how that experience has been?

Tim: When I first got to IES about five and a half years ago, the board was focused on turning the organization around from a revenue generation standpoint, specifically to lessen our reliance on LightFair. We have put a lot of effort in the last few years into putting in place the mechanisms to launch the Lighting Library as an annual subscription, (to) increase value to new sustaining membership categories, and (to) increase education revenue streams. While there was a shortfall due to LightFair not happening, we created other levers we could pull to try and make up for some of that shortfall. I do think this organization is in a great place moving forward.

Randy: Dan Salinas was tapped as the interim Executive Director, tell me about that process?

Tim: When I first came to IES they were working on a succession process, which consists of an executive search committee that decides if an interim is needed. I was not part of the committee hence of the process, but I know Dan well. He has always been a great resource and mentor to me, as well as many people in the industry. He is the perfect person to keep the ship steered in the right direction.

Randy: Is there anything you wanted to get done that you didn’t?

Tim: I was hoping that we could move forward with our global collaboration more than we were able to. We did increase our global membership and some of our global partnerships—specifically IES Australia and New Zealand, the Indian Society of Lighting Engineers, and many others— but unfortunately when the pandemic hit we had to rethink how we would be able to interact with those organizations. Fortunately, we were able to put together Light for Life, the global event that we have held virtually over the past 2 years. This has really helped us maintain those global relationships.

Randy: Now that you are leaving IES, can you tell us about your future plans?

Tim: Yes! I will be the new Executive Director for IEEE’s Power and Energy Society, starting June 21st. They have about 40,000 members globally, and I will be working closely with IEEE and their other societies.

Randy: We are certainly going to miss you. You have done great work at IES.

Tim: I am definitely going to miss working so closely with the other past presidents of the organization, all of the amazing volunteers, our Board members, and the great staff.