President and CEO, Central Electric Power Cooperative 
Robert C. Hochstetler MS’04 was raised in Southern Indiana. He received a master’s in statistics from RIT in May 2004 while living in Victor, N.Y., and working at Kodak Park. Rob graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1991 with an electrical engineering degree. He began his career in the power industry at a power plant in his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana. As he began his career as an engineer, Rob quickly realized that he had many great ideas to improve operations at the plant, but he struggled to get funding for projects because, as he puts it, “I just didn’t know how to speak the language of finance.” This led to more school and him receiving an MBA from Indiana State in 1995. He parlayed this degree and his leadership abilities into numerous positions for the power company before arriving in Rochester with his wife and two daughters. While in New York, the Hochstetler’s became foster parents to numerous children and ultimately adopted a son. It was during this period, Rob attended RIT in the late afternoon and evening. When asked why he wanted to study statistics at the beginning of this century he replied, “This was right at the time storing data was becoming inexpensive and I knew our world was going to be able to use data to make decisions closer to real-time. RIT and the degree have not let me down and decades later, I find myself using the theories and lessons almost every day.” 
 
Rob parlayed his degree to a new position at the power company’s corporate office in Cincinnati to manage risk on an energy trading floor. From here Rob was recruited back to Indiana to work for the electric cooperatives of the state. While at Hoosier Energy, Rob had a vision of a new strategy in the industry and again returned to school in the evening to receive a master’s degree in strategic management from Indiana University in 2012. He used this degree to begin transitioning the organization into a more sustainable future. While in Bloomington, the Hochstetlers brought two more older children into their family. 
 
In 2014, Mr. Hochstetler was named president and CEO of Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia South Carolina. Central has annual revenue approaching $1.5 billion per year and through the twenty cooperatives of South Carolina provide competitively priced power to nearly two million citizens of the state. Rob and his wife Linda reside in Chapin South Carolina with their children residing in London, San Clemente, California, Richmond, Virginia, South Carolina, and the youngest in school at Clemson.