Ethical Collaboration: How Partnerships Can Create a Bigger Impact with Omaha Performing Arts & Tenaska

This episode was recorded on December 7, 2024.

We'd like to dedicate this episode to honor the memory of Howard Hawks, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Tenaska, who passed away in December 2024. A visionary leader and philanthropist, Mr. Hawks recognized both business opportunities and community needs.  His generosity and leadership shaped Omaha’s growth, enriched countless lives, and left a lasting legacy, like the upcoming Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement.

Our hearts go out to his wife, Rhonda, his children, and all who knew him. We dedicate this episode, focused on ethical business partnerships and community impact, to Howard Hawks and the profound influence he had on our community.

This week on "Walk the Talk with Blake Peterson," we're joined by Joan Squires, President of Omaha Performing Arts, and Ron Quinn, Executive VP at Tenaska, a local energy company that has quietly been  leading in their industry for years. These two remarkable guests are deeply involved in the exciting upcoming opening of the Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement in early 2026.

This groundbreaking project represents a remarkable collaboration between Omaha Performing Arts and Tenaska Inc., demonstrating a powerful model of corporate social responsibility. Joan will share her vision for this transformative project, which will further amplify the already significant impact of Omaha Performing Arts, reaching over 600,000 people annually and generating a staggering $61 million in economic impact.

Ron opens up on the importance of this partnership and how it demonstrates a commitment to ethical and impactful corporate citizenship. Together, it’s a unique and insightful conversation about the power of collaboration, the importance of social responsibility, and the lasting impact of supporting the arts in our community.

Transcript

Blake Peterson Host

Ron and Joan, thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to be on the podcast and I'm really excited to learn more about the new project that you guys are, you know, embarking on here. There's gonna be opening up in 2026, and so I gave a little bit of a you know know brief synopsis in the intro, but I want to confirm some of these numbers and some of this impact with you all just off the start to get things rolling. So the Tanaska Center for Arts Engagement I see it has a is it right, $108 million development expected to go in here in Omaha. 

Joan Squires Guest

That's correct. That's the capital cost of the project and I'm really pleased to report that we've hit the finish line. 

Blake Peterson Host

Wow, that's great Congratulations. And privately funded right Majority. Privately funded the majority is. 

Joan SquiresGuest

We have a little bit of. We have some support from the state of Nebraska and the city of Omaha, but most of the funding has been privately funding and especially grateful to Tenaska for the leadership gift that allowed this whole project to go forward. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, absolutely, and I was interested in learning more about how the relationship between Tenaska and OPAA got started. You know how did this spark kind of get ignited? I don't know, ron, if you want to take that on, or Joan first. 

Ron QuinnGuest

Well, I'll take a start and Joan can chime in, but from a supporting standpoint, tenasco has been in the community now 35 years a relatively below the radar company but a privately held energy company in Omaha and a lot of the people that have been associated with Tenaska. 

It was a startup company in 1987, and over time it's grown to be a multi-billion dollar company, still based in Omaha today, but with offices around the country, and a lot of the growth in our company has been participated through a number of our employees who have been very active in the community over the last 20, 25 years, but we've not really done anything as a company. 

It's really been done to the individual owners of Tenaska, starting with Howard and Rhonda Hawks, and through a whole cadre of other people that have been behind the scenes in support of making investments in the part of Omaha's activities, both in a lot of the nonprofit activities that have gone on, and Tenasca was looking for an opportunity to support the Omaha community in a visible way and in a way that would actually have the Tenasca name involved really for the first time, and that was a step out for us, because you're making a commitment to a partner that you want to have confidence in just as the same thing as on the other side. 

In the long-term history, I think, of both our company and OPA has been such that the relationship with Joan, the work that had been done by Rhonda Hawks with the OPA group in the past, and that relationship brought some strong ties that made it a fit. The other thing that made it a fit was that we were looking for something that, from an employee standpoint, would be broadly based. So it needed to find some community activity that wasn't just isolated to some part of the employee base and the community base where this has such broad appeal and such broad focus to throughout the city, throughout the state kids, adults and a commitment to the arts that we think is important. So that was really the strategy behind the partnership. 

Blake PetersonHost

Wow, that's great. Thanks for adding that, Joan. Anything else on? that. 

Joan SquiresGuest
Sure, you know, as we developed the Tanaska Center for Arts Engagement and we can talk a little more about what we are going to be doing in the venue but the fact that it's reaching a broad part of the community and really had the breadth of opportunity and as we started to move forward in the project, we knew we needed a partner that understood what we were trying to do to change community and to really serve everybody. And we're also a company that we respected, that has a long track record, as Ron mentioned, of doing wonderful philanthropic work. They've certainly supported a lot of causes, but we couldn't move forward without a leadership gift. 

We've had a relationship with Rhonda and other Tenasca employees. In fact, many of them, including Ron, are regular attendees at our performances. They understand what we are doing in education, in engagement and those activities and as we started to have that conversation, really I think we both got excited about the possibilities of what this might bring. The location of that and for us to have a name on the building that represented the highest level of integrity and service to community was really important to us so that we knew it would live on and it was just. It seemed like a natural fit, so it didn't just happen overnight. This was a long-term relationship and it took time to develop, but we are really thrilled that this new addition for our community is going to represent Tanaska's name. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, I'm excited too, and, Ron, something that you kind of already mentioned and maybe you covered, but since we set up this interview, I was interested in knowing a little more about the decision process on this is how we are going to deploy our philanthropic capital, and so I know I mean, omaha is such a great community. There's so many great giving companies out there, and some that come to mind might be Ronco Construction or Kiewit, who they do programs in which employees pick individual charities and they may match dollars, and they probably have another fund in which they have a committee that then they will allocate, and it's quite the undertaking, honestly, in order to have such a vast giving program like that, why did Tanaska decide you mentioned you were looking for a way to make impact in the community, something that maybe has the Tanaska name tied to it. What were those conversations like and what was the decision to be like? This is the right thing to do is to make one commitment to one organization that we truly believe in. How did you get to that finish line? 

Ron QuinnGuest

Well, again, much as Joan said, it was a process inside our company and it was really a board-level discussion. We do a lot of the things that you just talked about that other companies do, but on a smaller scale and, as Joan mentioned, this was a different process for us because of the leadership gift nature of this, and again, I would just emphasize that Tenasca is simply providing a leadership gift. There are dozens and dozens, hundreds, of supporters of this project and we're, in part, by representing them as well, with the idea that we're joining with them to make this project come to reality. You can call it impact investing, although that may be defined as something a little different than this, but it is one of these things where we wanted to have a major support effort going on in which we would align ourselves with OPA in a way that their activities would be enhanced and our commitment to the community would be visible. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, I think it's very impactful. I mean, something of this magnitude is also going to create a lot of jobs. It's going to be creating a lot more than just a center for people to go and uh and perhaps use and see shows and joan maybe touch on that. So obviously we talked when you first started a little bit more about what you hope to do with the at the center and whatnot, what. What is going to be available for the community to go and enjoy when you finally open the doors in 2026 sure I'll answer that. 

Joan SquiresGuest

First, put it in some context um, because as om Performing Arts has grown and we're now the largest arts institution in the state, we were completing a campus, and it was a vision of our late founder founding chair, john Gottschalk, to make sure that we used our properties to enhance the mission to serve community, the Holland Center being the centerpiece of it. What is now the Dick and Mary Holland Campus, steelhouse, is the next step in that, but what we knew we really needed to serve our mission was an education and engagement center, because we had expanded so many activities, whether they are master classes in jazz or dance or Broadway, new hip-hop labs. We had young people under our stairways and in the hallways and in the lobbies, and we just were out of space. So we knew we wanted to use our remaining property to really have the right kind of facility that would expand all those opportunities going forward. 

Beyond the artistic as we look at it, though, is also financial responsibility. Beyond the artistic as we look at it, though, is also financial responsibility, because we believe we have a responsibility to be good fiduciaries, and so that we, as we approached Tenesca, we not only had a capital budget, but we also said and this is how we will operate, this is how we will to happen in the building and had really put together pretty extensive plans so that, as they were considering it, they knew that we had done our own homework in looking at it. So what we're creating now to finally answer your question is really it's going to be a chance of all ages community, from early childhood all the way to older adults, and every type of activity through the arts, and take advantage of the artists coming through the community and local artists as well. So I'm really excited. It's a personal passion of mine. 

Blake PetersonHost

I can tell yeah, I can tell you light up when you talk about it Now with that, as I'm reading some information about what's going to be provided at the center. I mean talk about Broadway-level performers being able to teach through there. I mean, what are you? And we also talk about the opportunity for jobs. So, when this is all said and done, is it going to be something where there's weekly classes, people are coming in? Is there going to be certifications you're providing to people as they go through? I mean, what does it kind of look like? 

Joan SquiresGuest

And I know there might be many things, but just to get more granular, Sure, there's going to be a wide variety and there will be camps and classes that you can sign up for. That will have a cost to them, so adults may come in and learn guitar. We may have a Broadway performer doing a master class or a workshop for young people. We will have day camps. We've already started. We had a dance intensive recently with a Broadway performer so that they can sign up for a week-long class or maybe a summer-long class. We'll eventually have programs for vets so veterans will be able to come in. It really is going to have the breadth of all kinds of art forms, of classes and opportunities that don't exist in our community now and and really take advantage of these amazing spaces inside the venue. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, I think that it's going to provide so many of those kids a chance to maybe pursue a dream that otherwise they just would eventually erode away because they never get exposure to this in Omaha or they're not limited Right. 

Joan SquiresGuest

It is, and in fact, one of the things is hip hop. We launched a camp last year. We're getting ready to open here in a little over a year, but we wanted to start to get relay the groundwork and I heard from a young man who's a seventh grader the other day. He performed and just talk about what it meant to him and the friendships and what he learned from the great hip hop artists that we're bringing in. And just you know, you're impacting lives and I think that's really what, what really underscores all of the great work. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, there's so much talk about team sports and what you gain from that, but this is a community you're creating and people are growing together and you may not have a scoreboard per se, but it still can provide a lot of those similar benefits, I think, if people view it through that lens. 

Joan SquiresGuest

Yeah, it does. We go into right now. We'll go. We do things in North Omaha, we do things in South Omaha, out in West Omaha, those opportunities to start to connect a community, then to be welcoming for everybody, to then come to the Tanaska Center. So I really think as we open the doors it's going to be filled from the first day. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, I hope so. I think it's very exciting. And where is the exact location of the center? 

Joan SquiresGuest

It's just east of the Holland Center. So it's between Douglas and Dodge streets, between 11th and 12th streets, so we'll have a little bit of green space outside so we can do some things out there. But it's just, it's the last piece of the campus that connects now the new Leahy Mall with North Omaha and I think it's going to be a wonderful addition. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, it's great. And, ron, you know I want to know a little bit about the mission that Tenaska has. Right, and I know I mean an energy company and I was in the oil field, for actually in a previous life it feels like, but you know I was a part of that whole industry and sometimes I mean it gets a bad rap, you know, and I mean not necessarily from me but it certainly can from other people, when in all actuality serves an incredibly important purpose to our economy and our world, just moving along. But some people might look at it and say wow, the you know, tanaska Center for Performing Arts that doesn't have anything to do with an energy company. How do you think your mission as a company and the mission of this center actually kind of meet and come together and start to, you know, move in the same direction? 

Ron QuinnGuest

Good question. I'm going to come, I'm going to loop around to the answer to that question, but I'm going to do so by transitioning from the question you just asked, joan, which was and what you saw in her answer is that this is an education center. And when I remarked about all of the kind of supportive projects that Tanaska's owners and representatives have done in the past, I'd say a large focus of that has been in education in different components of the city Schools K through 12, pre-k, children's Museum, all kinds of other organizations and schools, public and private, and this just as a component. You brought up the issue of sports. Just as important to some kids as sports are the arts, and without exposure to those arts when they're young, they're never going to get that inspiration and that training and that spark that takes them on a career path that may work for them. So, again, this exposure opportunity that this center provides. So I'd say that's part of what was behind Tenaska's team and board effort to try to find a project like this to support in an impactful way, joining with other supporters of the project. 

And in terms of Tenasca as a company, yes, we're an energy company, we're based here in Omaha, but we're really a footprint across all of North America and Canada and slightly in Mexico, and we used to do some overseas projects. We quit those in the late 1990s but we did do a project in Bolivia, slightly in Mexico, and we used to do some overseas projects. We quit those in the late 1990s but we did do a project in Bolivia and in Pakistan. Today we are primarily a natural gas and electric company. We provide electric generating systems and electric systems marketing and we provide a lot of natural gas, both buying and selling, not drilling, but we do market and of natural gas, both buying and selling, not drilling, but we do market and broker natural gas and electricity throughout all 50 states and it's important to our country. Nothing's more important to make the country run than energy and we see it as a deep responsibility. 

In terms of the type of energy forms we we also are an energy generator, primarily natural gas, fired wind and solar. So those are our three focus of activities. We're pretty much technology neutral, but we don't have any coal, we don't have any nuclear and when you're doing wind and solar, the issue is that they only provide energy when the wind is blowing and when the sun is shining, and that's not 24 hours a day. So whenever the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining, then you have to have some other resource with which to provide on-demand electricity for hospitals, for schools, for police departments, for all those kinds of 24-hour, 24-7 things. And that's where, primarily today in this country, natural gas generating systems are by far the preferred, most environmentally friendly and most economical resources to do that with. So that's the focus of our activity. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, I love it. I think you've probably had explained that a couple times in your tenure with Tenasca and the technology is really getting incredible in the natural gas space and I've read a couple private companies I wish I could buy some shares of here and some of the things they're doing. I'm like goodness there's going to be some great advancements in that industry in the future. 

Ron QuinnGuest

And so we're also focused on carbon sequestration and pipelines to do that. Carbon capture, carbon sequestration, development of a lot of environmentally focused activities to have a positive impact on the environment that's great. 

Blake PetersonHost

And would you think that a part of you know everybody wants to know a company's mission and values is certainly something that the business ethics alliance talks about you know very frequently and do you think in a way because you said this is obviously a partner gift and the board of Tenasca came together to decide to make this gift Do you see it as almost a company has like a mission statement for maybe what you're doing to provide profit and make the company grow, but also almost a separate mission, that is, your philanthropic goals? Do you see those as two separate things and is that how you all are talking about it? 

Ron QuinnGuest

I don't see them as separate things. I see them as a single focus of being a. We want to be a good corporate citizen in all the locations in which we do business, which is over half our employees are not in Omaha, so I mean again, we have a large footprint in the Dallas area and in a number of plants around the country where we generate electricity and where we handle natural gas and electricity. But all of that is focused on a commitment to three things primarily the customer. Then the community in which we're at delivering value for fair value for fair price. Then the community in which we're at delivering value for fair value for fair price. And having to stay in business, and we're trying to do it in a way that is, I'll say, trying to minimize risk to the extent possible. Recognize that in all businesses there are risks, just as there are in all arts projects. 

So, from that standpoint, a commitment to the community as part of being that good corporate citizen, and that's been a heart of our company since the get-go. You talked about the Business Ethics Alliance and ethical focus of business to me is a component of long-term success. If you don't make a commitment to customers and to employees and to the communities in which you reside, you're probably not going to stand business long-term. Short-term gains may be realized, but long-term success will not Gosh that's great. 

Blake PetersonHost

I've heard it many times in some conversations recently, so I love hearing you say that statement. I think it's very important. And, joan, I think Ron just touched on something as the leader of a non-for-profit which, by the way, a non-for-profit, but you're certainly dealing even before this project. I mean, you are making an incredible impact and there is quite a bit of money that is flowing through your fund right into the community. I think that, or your non-for-profit, excuse me and so, if I read correctly about, you know you affect about 600,000 people a year currently, and then almost $60 million is kind of what it takes to run and operate your programs on an annual basis. Is that correct? 

Joan SquiresGuest

It fluctuates depending on our Broadway season at the Orpheum and others, but that's close to that. But our economic impact annually is over $61 million and then all the jobs associated with it. So we are still a business and I think sometimes people use nonprofit as, oh, you're not really a business and they look at us differently. It's a tax, you know qualification. But we still have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of our work, to meet our budget every year so that we're good fiduciaries for those who are contributing or buying tickets from us, and to serve the community. Now we have a mission with the you mission, with taking care of our now soon-to-be-four wonderful venues bringing arts and entertainment to the community, and then, for me most importantly, the education and engagement activities, and in doing so, we still have to run as a business. So we we have annual budgets, we have an endowment and we have to fundraise, and good corporate citizens like Tenaska and others have been incredibly generous. 

I do look at Omaha and we are in a special place here because I have a lot of conferences I go to nationally and my colleagues just can't believe what does happen here, and Tenaska has been one of the leaders. I mean, they're a company that really does give back. They certainly are committed to what their happen here, and Tenasca has been one of the leaders. I mean it's. They're a company that really does give back. They certainly are committed to what what their focus is, but they believe in making sure the quality of life where their employees are is better, and and so they contribute to organizations like ours, and in a very generous way. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, absolutely, and it's. I love that. You said it. I know I've. 

You know, every board or every that I'm on, I get the finance committee because of my role, right, that's what I go to and I have to tell a lot of, you know, small and non-for-profits. 

I'm like you know, yeah, maybe it's not profit, but no revenue means no programs, right, and that's what happens if you don't keep a balanced budget and keep things flowing in. 

So it is very much a business and the responsibility and the risk is very much very similar, right, and so when you are going out and doing these fundraising especially maybe earlier on, or when you're trying to grow and find a partner for this new center you're trying to make, I'm sure there's, you know, some kind of temptation and incentive to, you know, say yes to whoever might come forward, because it's like gosh, we need to raise this money in order to achieve these goals and keep on advancing our mission. 

But maybe that's not always the right choice for the company, your employees long-term or your non-for-profit long-term. So can you maybe touch on what's your process like when you decide to take on any kind of a corporate donor relationship like this in which you're gonna put a company's name on the side. You talked about their commitment and what they've done over the years, but you've been doing this for a long time and I'm sure you've had a lot of opportunities that have walked through the door. Maybe you've had to say no to some of those and I'd be interested as to maybe your thought process and decision-making and qualification for those. 

Joan SquiresGuest

Well, I think think most donors, and particularly here in Omaha and to NASCA included, look at philanthropic support to serve the mission of the organization they're supporting. Once in a while we will have someone come forward that wants to fund their pet project and you have to determine is that really part of what you are and not just go chase the dollars. So I've seen nonprofits get off track where they're literally chasing any project that comes along and their mission gets spread and or it may not even be core to who they are. So I think sometimes you have to be careful in those decisions. It doesn't happen very often, but you do see that on occasion and then you have to make judgment calls Is this mission driven, is this core to who we are? And sometimes either it's not the right fit or not right now, but for the most part we don't run in that very often here. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, that's great. Omaha is a little bubble in a way. I've noticed it's a beautiful community to be a part of for that reason and so so generous in so many ways, but, you know, not for profits. That's the lifeblood is people's generosity and hopefully the impact you make is is, you know, can ripple through time. I want to talk about impact and so we threw out some numbers as far as the number of people you help a year and how much money you you bring through the community. 

But if we're going to measure impact, I mean I think that and, ron, I'm definitely going to want to hear some of your opinion on this as well afterward but when you are, let's say, a for-profit and publicly traded company, I think it is very clear how you're going to be measuring your success and your impact, and it is actually reflecting in your stock price on a daily basis, on the S&P 500, perhaps, or what people think is going to happen. But for you, what is important to you in measuring your impact and making sure? Because I'm sure when you founded this non-for-profit, there was a goal you wanted to set out and achieve and then, as you bring more people on board, that goal has to grow and change and adapt, and so how do you measure that and do you think, have you done it so far? You know what I mean. Maybe that'd be a good question. Are we there yet? Yeah, we're there, yet. We always keep moving the goalposts. 

Joan SquiresGuest

I don't think we were ever there, which has been part of the fun, because as we continue to evolve and serve community, I mean there's a couple of ways. Firstly, yes, we also have financial measurements. So we want to make sure we've made the budget every year since inception. The first couple of years of startup we had deficit budgets but we made the deficit budget we said we were going to, and then we're able to continue to put the financial structures in place. So certainly we have a responsibility. But I think beyond that is it's and you can look at numbers, number of students we might reach or the number of schools. We have a high school theater program that's now in all 93 counties across the whole state and a little bit of South Dakota and Iowa now. So you start to look at the breadth of programs, the number of students. But some of our measurements are not quantifiable, it's just, it's qualitative. 

And you, we get feedback on social media. We do surveys, we see what the responses are. We literally the other day we gave away tickets through VetTix. Veterans came to some of our shows and we saw on social the postings of what it meant to them and their families. That wouldn't have been able to otherwise come to a show, or students that get back to us on their career paths, or just how it makes families come together to experience that we get people off their devices, we give them something they don't get anywhere else. It's the human connection and, frankly, today I think we need it more than ever. So our, our mission is is really important, I think, for the the greater good of the community yeah, just think about the fact that before every performance it's put your cell phones away. 

Ron QuinnGuest

Nobody does that much anymore, Except I'll tell you what. 

Joan SquiresGuest

The exception is right now, though, is we have closed captioning now on phones, so people, occasionally, are following along the words, so we let them do that. But exactly right, ron, you have to put your cell phones away, you have to be with the people around you and then connect to live performances. It's not digital, it's not on a screen, and it allows people to express what they are, you know, as humans, which can sound a little hokey at times, but it really is important. I think the arts bring creativity, bring people together, and you know, I like nothing better than standing in the back of a packed concert hall or theater and watching the reaction of the audience and the artists on stage. It's just nothing better. 

Ron QuinnGuest

You know, what's really important is to recognize the fact that only in the last 100 years, could you ever have music without somebody performing it Right? Could you ever have theater without somebody performing it right? Could you ever have theater without somebody performing it? Now there's so much music on demand, performance on demand, whatever, uh that, uh, you know people are used to it. But keeping live performances, live music, uh, is just really an important component, or there won't be anybody to make any future recordings. We'll be living off of whatever's been in the can today, so to speak. 

Joan SquiresGuest

Yeah, and especially with the kinds of things we do for young people. In fact, this morning one of my staff members came in. He had taken his five-year-old, six-year-old son to Peter Pan for the first time, his first Broadway show his son had seen. And he said his son's like, could I do that? What it was? Those are young people on stage. He had so many questions about the show, thrilled. He said he was complaining having to sit in the theater before the show started and then he said he couldn't take his eyes off the stage and he hasn't stopped talking about it. And you start to open up these worlds for young people and and it's just wonderful, yeah, and it's. 

Blake PetersonHost

You know, ron, you brought up a great point on. You know there needs to be people around to make the next generation of great artists and there's. I think it's. It's scary, there's an imposter syndrome aspect where all you have I mean I was a guitarist, I played in bands and I played in bars never anything that crazy, right, but it was a fun time and I always was very bold and so I liked that risk, I liked the rush of being up there. But if you're comparing yourself to Jimi Hendrix, you might be like, oh, I can't do that. But at one point in time you didn't have the on-demand ability to look at the best of the best all the time and then say, well, I'm not that good. 

Ron QuinnGuest

The best of the best all the time and then say, well, I'm not that good, so I shouldn't do it. And that's the important part of this. I mean that is really lost. I mean it's the same thing you have. All those things are edited to perfection, and so anybody who's trying to do it for the first time, or even the 10th time, says I can't do it as well as what I saw or what that was. And that's a real sad event, because we now have this national and the school teachers will tell you the same thing. You know, it's very hard to inspire students when they're used to everything being perfect, and yet this is the chance to say, okay, we do it wrong, and that's in sports provides the same thing. There's a lot of parallels here and there's a lot of different paths for what kids skills and expertise are. And there's this heavy emphasis on for and this is a heavy emphasis on other dimensions, yeah, which I love and you talked about the little boy and his experience seeing a show. 

Blake PetersonHost

And I've seen some shows, but I remember going to Wicked when I was probably 23 years old and that was my first Broadway performance and I mean it was great. I'm enjoying it, but the final act before the, the, the, whatever, the middle I'm sorry, I should know the word In which there's the big scene in which the green which is doing her you know, that's that's to me was so I almost had. I was crying, I could not believe how beautiful it was happening in front of me and a person was expelling this sound from their body. I mean, it was. It resonates with you so much differently. And now you're going to. Well, there's a movie. I'm sure the movie's great, I don't know. I'm sure it's fantastic. 

Ron QuinnGuest

I have no idea. Yeah, I'm sure it is but it's nothing could be. 

Blake PetersonHost

you know, the best part was, as soon as that it was done to intermission, I turned to my friend and said, oh my gosh, that was the greatest thing I've ever seen, and we're all so fired up on it. I don't know if you're going to get that same feeling behind the screen. And so do you partner with schools? I'm thinking, as we talk about the new generation and all this, cell phones and the digital age, how do you reach out and make sure you're getting those people to these classes and what do you kind of do to help pry them away from the screens? And maybe the parents, who are very busy and don't have the time to always sign them up or do these extracurriculars, how do you make it easy for them and how do you make it available so you hopefully get those kids away from the screens and doing something with you? 

Joan SquiresGuest

Sure, we do it a number of ways. We certainly work closely with the schools and the teachers, so the administrators of the schools are really important. We have student matinees where you see the buses lined up around our buildings. We bring young people into it and also make sure that we offer the classes and then a lot of it's online. So, as much as we can get everybody's attention more and more on social media to let people know the classes are available, more and more on social media to let people know the classes are available, working a lot of grassroots right now to advertise and market these classes and you will see more and more about it so that people might say, well, that's not for me, but that might be. Or to try it out, because we have so many opportunities of whether you like jazz or dance or Broadway or hip-hop or all these art forms, may speak to somebody in a way that maybe I could try that and we're also. 

It is similar to sports, a lot of these classes. I just saw a master class with the cast member from Peter Pan the other night and it was a lot. It was 70 students from across the state. They're not all going to be Broadway people, but they're all in there trying. They get to work together on that experience and they take something away from it about discipline, cooperation and just the camaraderie of learning something new. So the arts give back in the same way. I think many sports teams do. Not everybody's going to be an NFL football player or be in the NBA, but it's that experience together. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, and the great lessons to teach your kids and stories to tell them later on. And I got to learn from a Broadway performer at one point. You know that's so neat. And I think I'm thinking about this amazing center which you know I'm impressed by not only the programmings but the incredible commitments from the community. I mean, there's a lot of big things in Omaha but there's not a lot of projects of this scope and size any given year. This is something special. 

I think that that would be clear from the articles that I've read. And so when I'm doing my goal setting, what do I want One year out, five years, 10 years, and I think about that and what would be at the end of that timeframe? How do I qualify it as being successful or not? Because your goals change everything. The world changes around you. So, as we're starting off and embarking on this project of the Tanaska Center for Performing Arts, what would be the definition of success on some of these milestones and how are you quantifying it? And, ron, you've been a little quiet as of late I've been picking on Joan a lot, so maybe you could start from your perspective. 

Ron QuinnGuest

Well, it's really a Joan question to kind of measure that success. I think we will deem it a success to the extent the project gets done on time and on budget. 

Joan SquiresGuest

Which it will. 

Ron QuinnGuest

But I think from our standpoint, in aligning ourselves together with OPA on this project, we wouldn't have done it if we didn't have confidence in the leadership and the board and the track record that they had established, and I assume that's probably true. On the reverse side of that is they wouldn't have wanted our name on the building if they didn't feel that we would have that commitment into the future as well. So when you provide a leadership gift on behalf of all of the supporters of this project, we're all looking for the same thing, but it does depend on an ongoing leadership and strong board support. It's just the same as strong management. And then we get back to the Ethics Alliance, which is that commitment to ethical values, to doing what you say you're going to do, to delivering value for the customer. 

And we talked earlier about the fact that it really is a business. One business makes profits, returns to donors who either use it to buy goods and services or to make philanthropic support for other activities. If they can't provide a service in which they get enough revenue to cover their costs, then they're not going to be in business. And if they do, then those excess revenues get redeployed back to grow. And if they hadn't been successful they wouldn't have been able to grow the way they have. But there's very little difference in the way these two businesses are operating. Quite frankly, in a way, any successful nonprofit operates. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, absolutely Great answer, Joan. What about you? 

Joan SquiresGuest

Well, I want to see all the every room, because it's Tanasca and all the donors that have come together. You know we've had quite a few folks be very generous to this venue, but to see the rooms filled, the classrooms filled, the rehearsal halls active all the time, I mean the need is there right now and I do believe the opportunity is there to really increase the opportunities for the community and to serve all parts of the community. We are here for everybody and we've had a lot of programs that are focused on making sure everybody feels welcome with it. So I want to see that we do operate as a business. We have our core values. We haven't talked about those, but team inclusion, trust and integrity and our culture to support all of that, and that's why I think the partnership with Tenaska has been wonderful, because we share so many of the same values. We want to see the same thing for the community and we you know you you want to leave something here in a community that make that just continues to improve it. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that I'm sure everybody at Tenasca sees the incredible vigor in you and your energy and to your point, ron, you've built a successful non-for-profit business structure that has grown incrementally over time and has proven success. And if, before you make any type of investment, the best advice I've gotten and before making a buy, a company that makes money is usually the best one you can go with, and you found somebody who can consistently do that, and I I hope I wish nothing but success to the both of you because if it weren't for great private companies and wonderful non-for-profits, I think there would be so much less in this world for us regular people to go and enjoy. You go to the zoo. The only thing, the more in the zoo than animals, are names on the walls. I always say because of great people who've donated their money to make this incredible place for me to take my kids and make memories with them, and so I wanted to save these last couple of minutes just for anything else that you wanted to add. You know whether it's about the. 

I know you said that we didn't talk much about the values. If there's anything that you want to make sure people understand about OPA, before we wrap up, or about the Tanaska Center that you want to make sure the community knows. I just want to give you the opportunity to do that. I know we've covered a lot and thank you so much for being so generous with your answers. I really appreciate it. But, joan, how about you? What do you say? I'm going to point it at you first. 

Joan SquiresGuest

No, I do hope people will take advantage of it. I think this is when we look at attracting and retaining a workforce people the first thing they ask is what is there to do and to take advantage of these buildings? I think Omaha has a really special opportunity for the citizens here to not just everything that Omaha Performing Arts. We have four amazing venues and now, with the Tanaska Center, they should take advantage of it. It's not just say hey, they're here, but try it out. I do hope that folks will come down to either attend a show, send their children or grandchildren or somebody to a class, or help us support those classes. That will change lives. It can sound sort of trite, but I do think the arts have the power to do that, and so I hope they will take advantage. The building is spectacular, is going to be spectacular and it will be on time on budget. 

I mean guarantee that by all the construction folks right now. I was just through yesterday, but I want people to understand what we have here, because many communities don't have the quality of the venues, the opportunity to have those experiences, and we're not so big that not everybody can't get there. Some cities are so large sometimes I think it's more of a challenge and here we have the greatest venues you could find anywhere in a city that it's still very accessible and we want to make sure, by the way, that cost is not a barrier. So there's opportunities too. So, whether some of our ticket programs or scholarships and things, we will make sure that if someone wants to come in, we don't want to have any barriers to be able to do that. 

Blake PetersonHost

And where should we go if we want to find out about those programs? 

Joan SquiresGuest

All of it is on o-pa.org so people can check out our website. There's already some information on the Tanaska Center there. Tickets are through ticketomaha.com for all of our venues. But we'll continue to post it and they'll continue to see. I appreciate the opportunity to talk today about it and to get a chance to share it with Ron. 

Blake PetersonHost

It's fun and make sure we're going to have those links posted in the episode notes everybody! So if you want to go and check it and follow us on social media. 

Joan SquiresGuest

That's where everything's happening, so that's where most of it is. 

Blake PetersonHost

Absolutely. And the Business Ethics Alliance!

Joan SquiresGuest

I always forget to say that too. 

Blake PetersonHost

So there we go and Ron, and then in the very beginning you started off by saying you know, Tenasca is kind of this multi-billion dollar company. It's almost under the radar, right, but it was built here, grown here, obviously has incredible impact. And so I guess I just want to give the floor to you with kind of that same wrapped up question on how is for people that want to you know, maybe understand more about the company, or if you want to give them any other little nuggets of the impact that Tenasca makes, Well, I would say that we're a private company. 

Ron QuinnGuest

We're the largest small company I know, because our culture still remains a small company culture, but it's a large organization and we can only do that because we are a private company. And you mentioned earlier the fact if we weren't a private company, we couldn't have made a commitment like this, because that would have been a shareholder decision. In this case, our shareholders are us and our employees and our board, and so therefore, we could make this kind of a decision, and so there's a lot of advantages to not being a public company. As Howard Hawks, our chairman, says, we'll never be a public company. They do dumb things on purpose. We do dumb things, but we don't do them on purpose. 

But I guess the other thing I would say is that in the history of TANASCA and our organization, through the things that we've done in the community, there's been a large focus not only on education and sports, but on mental health. Not only on education and sports, but on mental health. And again, I tie that back to the idea that kids are getting so stressed by social media, by what's taking up their time, by these comparisons to the perfect, that we have to have these types of opportunities for kids to get engaged with other kids, doing things, making mistakes, finding out it's okay to not be perfect, and that I think we can. This, in part, is going to help on some of finding out it's okay to not be perfect and that I think we can. This, in part, is going to help on some of those issues, if it's done right and if we get kids engaged, because we've got to get them away from their devices. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah, absolutely, and I think your story just from your bio and everything I read earlier, speaks to that. It takes time. I mean you had many other you know multiple positions at other companies that maybe people would have never walked away from. I'm sure you took some level of risk to decide to come over and be a part of Tenasca and now from 1988 till now I mean it wasn't always Tenasca being in a position to do these things and I'm sure there was a couple of years that we weren't sure if you're going to make it to this point with Tenasca. And yet here you are. 

Ron QuinnGuest

And so it is a slow process and yeah, oh yeah, it's a long-term commitment, uh, commitment to values. There's actually been times when we just said we're not going to do that, whatever happens happens yeah and uh, that's, that's when. 

That's when the the tough gets going and so to speak, and that's when you're what's. That's when you know whether your values are real or not. They have to be tested. And if you're going to you asked the question earlier to Joan about have you ever had to have a donor comes to you and says I'll donate. But in her case, if someone comes to you and it's kind of strings attached and it's I want you to do this, I'll give you the money with which to do it, then you have to figure out does it fit your core mission? And the same thing on our side. If we have a customer and says well, I'll do this or that, but then you have to evaluate. No, we're going to follow laws, regulations. We have a plethora of laws in the energy industry. Our commitments to compliance and environmental activities is just paramount and we spend a lot of time doing it. And we have an incredible safety record. We have a plant that's gone a million and a half man hours without an off, a lost time accident in a power plant. 

Blake PetersonHost

That's incredible. Yeah, that's incredible. That's a feat and that is a. That's a speaks to culture, right? And it also speaks to having a great understanding all the way from the C-suite level down to those employees where they must believe that you believe. 

Ron QuinnGuest

As the ethics alliance will tell you, it's the tone at the top. 

Blake PetersonHost

Yeah absolutely, and I'm going to take that little nugget on. You know your values have to be tested. I mean, wow, how great is that? And it's true, you don't think about it, but you could say values all day, but at some point they're going to be tested and they're not really you don't know if they that moment right. So that's great. Well, thank you both so much for your time. I look forward to being a guest at the Tanaska Center for Performing Arts at some point in the future and I'm definitely going to try to make it to more of the events. I mean, I feel terrible. I haven't been to the Steelhouse yet. 

I used to live like three blocks away from it but, now it's like I'm going to be going on and checking it out, but thank you both so much for your time and I can't wait to see this thing break ground and be open. It'll be awesome. 

Joan SquiresGuest

Thank you. Thank you so much, Blake. This is great.