ENR’s National Top 20 Under 40
Wallingford, CT
Jacob Blanton
Transmission & Distribution Regional Operations Director
Burns & McDonnell
Empowering leadership provides vision for team
Blanton’s broad understanding of engineering operations and project management combined with empowering leadership, has enabled him to provide a vision for his team that has grown 128 percent in three years. Blanton’s design and management experience including leading six Transmission & Distribution departments regionwide. He has supported a diverse group of utility and power clients in the past two decades, including Eversource Energy, Xcel Energy and Oklahoma Gas and Electric and has served as project manager on transmission and substation projects nationally. Blanton was promoted to project manager following four years of project engineering that included leading two of OG&E’s largest multimillion-dollar projects, each involving the design and construction of some 100 miles of transmission to provide more affordable power to customers in Oklahoma and Arkansas. That led to a promotion to the T&D transmission department manager in Dallas Fort Worth, where he boosted work with local organizations across Texas. Blanton has helped raise nearly $290,000 since 2018 for United Way through an annual campaign fundraiser. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, he has remained committed to creating jobs for the next generation of engineers.