AME Alumnus Exemplifies the Power of a UA Engineering Degree

Engineering degrees from the University of Arizona are powerful. They’ve propelled alumni into the tech sector as entrepreneurs, academia as researchers and even out of this world as astronauts. For AME alumnus Dave Hutchens, “power” has a meaning all its own.

Hutchens, who earned a UA bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 1988 and a UA MBA in 1999, is the president and CEO of Tucson Electric Power, its sister company UniSource Energy Services and its parent holding company UNS Energy Corp. TEP provides power to more than 427,000 people in the Tucson metropolitan area, and UniSource Energy Services provides energy to more than 243,000 customers across Arizona.

“The problem-solving that you learn in engineering can’t be replicated really anywhere else,” he said. “The core of the most important things in my career has been what I learned in engineering, and then strengthened in the Navy to get practical experience.”

He added, “If you’re going to study engineering or science, the UA is a great school to do that.”

Hutchens serves on the UA Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the UA Engineering Industry Partner Board.