Travels with Charlie
By
Branko Terzic
Dr. Charles J. Cicchetti passed away November 19, 2025 after a long struggle with cancer. He was a graduate of Colorado College and earned a PhD. in Economics from Rutgers University. He was a friend and mentor.
I first met Charlie when he was Chairman of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (WPSC) from 1977 to 1980. He had earlier served as Wisconsin “energy czar” in the administration of Governor Patrick Lucy during the Carter era “Energy Crisis”.
I served as a Commissioner on the WPSC from 1981 to 1987 during which Charlie was a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Charlie was a very popular lecturer. His environmental economics lecture was broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio in the afternoons, and I remember scheduling my seventy-mile Madison to Milwaukee commute to coincide with his lectures. It was well worth it.
Charlie Cicchetti’s fifty-seven-page resume documented his six-decade career as an academic, entrepreneur, consultant, expert witness, author and speaker.
In 1993 I resigned from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Charlie offered me a position as managing director in the Washington DC office of Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting.
Later that year Charlie and I were invited to fly to Houston to meet with Ken Lay the CEO of Andersen’s most important client the energy giant Enron. The purpose of the meeting, set up the Andersen account partners, was to brief Ken, whom both Charlie and I knew, on recent developments in the electricity and natural gas industries. At the time, 1993 Enron was flying high and lauded by Forbes and Fortune. Enron’s troubles would not appear until a Fortune article in 2001.
Charlie and I showed up at Enron’s Houston headquarters ready for the briefing. We were dressed as usual, Charlie in an Italian tailored suit with alligator shoes and me in my double-breasted blazer with charcoal slacks. Charlie had once remarked that given our names clients didn’t expect us to look like the usual dark suit white shirt consultants.
Upon being escorted to Ken Lay’s office we entered and were warmly welcomed by Ken who introduced us to his number two Jeff Skilling.
After we sat down Skilling launched into a long lecture on the “new” structure of the energy industries, gas and electric, and why everything Charlie and I knew about these industries was incorrect or obsolete. Ken Lay just periodically nodded in agreement.
After about three quarters of an hour of listening to Skilling I leaned forward as if to say something but Charlie cut me off by thanking Ken and Jeff for the meeting and their hospitality.
As we walked out of the Enron building, I looked over at Charlie and said, “What was that all about?”
“Don’t worry about it. The Andersen partners wanted us to meet with Lay and we did.” Charlie replied.
“But. We didn’t get a word in edgewise?”
We kept walking.
“Think of it this way,” Charlie summarized “Enron just paid us a thousand dollars each to hear a one-hour speech by Jeff Skilling!”
Charlie was right, as usual. There was nothing more to be said or done. We headed to our respective homes.
The Honorable Branko Terzic is a former Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and State of Wisconsin Public Service Commission, in addition to energy industry experience was a US Army Reserve Foreign Area Officer ( FAO) for Eastern Europe (1979-1990). He hold a BS Engineering and honorary Doctor of Sciences in Engineering (h.c.) both from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
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Thank you Branko!
I loved reading that. I sure miss him!