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At the Factor This Studio at DTECH 2025, Ben Wilson, Founder and CEO, Ryker Holdings, sat down with Angela Godwin to discuss getting his feet wet in the utility industry, and his experience with next-generation utility construction at Ryker.
The utility industry hadn’t seen much major change until recently, – but the biggest change in Wilson’s eyes?
“The demands – really the demand, demand, demand,” Wilson said. “Between extreme weather, even mobilizing for storms, the windows are shortening. How do we not overstretch our people? How do we train?”
Contract utility companies like Ryker play a valuable role with managing the changes in industry, like more frequent extreme weather events and growing data center demand Wilson argues.
“I’m very passionate that we do it not with one huge company – we do it with an army of companies, an army of small family businesses,” Wilson said. “You’ve got your big investment companies, you got your big private equity companies, you’ve got the big IOUs, and the end of the day, it’s a relationship business.”
As the energy transition progresses, small businesses will continue to play a large role on the ground. To Ryker Holdings, which Wilson argues could still be considered a small business in the space, it’s imperative to maintain and support a local ecosystem of companies.
“As much as there is the demand, really, I think we have a responsibility both in the public and private sector of this space to support local families,” Wilson said. “We have a responsibility to our communities and to, to really grow them, to support them.”
