Building tomorrow's energy leaders today: E4 Carolinas Emerging Leaders Program grooms the best and brightest.

• Position: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

When Walter Putnam joined E4 Carolinas' Emerging Leaders Program earlier this year he was, at 27, the youngest member of the class, and one of only two participants from the sustainable-energy field. He was also, as he puts it, "completely biased" against nuclear energy, an industry represented by more than a few of his 29 classmates.

His negative views were shaped in part by his education as an appropriate technology major in Appalachian State University's Department of Technology and Environmental Design, where professors weren't shy about expressing their anti-nuclear stance. But as he interacted with industry peers and listened to talks by nuclear leaders, his views began to change. "People fear what they do not know," says Putnam, a partner at Shift Equity, a Charlotte-based firm that invests in renewable energy. "I was willing to be wrong. Now I understand at least enough to be more comfortable with (the industry)." He also has become friends with a program participant who's a mechanical engineer at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C. "It's neat to talk to someone with a completely different background and skill set but to be in complete agreement on most energy-industry issues."

Open-minded, willing to work with others, team-centered: Putnam represents the kind of young executive the E4 program aims to groom into the leaders of tomorrow's energy industry. With predicted labor shortages in the power and energy industry at all levels thanks to an aging workforce and technical talent being siphoned off by the computer, IT and dot-com fields in the last 30 years, it's critical to nurture a new cadre of energy leaders, industry experts say.

"Given the necessity of energy producers and distributors taking a portfolio approach--no one source of generation can be sustainable or affordable --just this fact alone is one reason why the ability to communicate and collaborate in (building) tomorrow's leaders is absolutely essential," says Cathy Maday, principal at Wingspan Performance, a Charlotte leadership development firm that created the E4 leadership program platform. Maday and her team manage the program, launched in 2013, for E4, an industry collective representing the energy clusters in North and South Carolina.

Putnam and his peers meet six times during the year for two days of programs, workshops, tours and networking at various sites throughout the two states. They also meet in small groups and receive one-on-one...