GESA and the Academy: A Strategic Alliance

By Michael Dickerson, Ph.D. and Assistant Professor of Engineering Ronald Boidi

ON MAY 2, three representatives from the Global Energy Services Alliance (GESA) attended commencement to watch their first Maine Maritime Academy hire, Elliott Misiura ’26, graduate. GESA CEO Richard Lowrance, CFO Diane Lowrance, and HR Manager and Head Recruiter Parker Staley made the trip to Castine from the company’s headquarters in Corpus Christi, Texas.

GESA representative Parker Staley with Professor Ronald Boidi and students Ryan Gamble, Elliott Misiura, Ava Cure, and Mya Engberg.

Assistant Professor of Engineering Ronald Boidi first met the GESA team at the Academy’s fall 2025 career fair, where he approached them to discuss the future of workforce development in the energy sector. That conversation resulted in GESA’s commitment to support the Academy’s electrical lab and gas turbine courses.

Since then, GESA has provided funding to upgrade the lab’s original plywood motor controller lab into an industrial-grade enclosure system designed to teach students analog motor control circuits in a more realistic environment. These upgrades not only give students hands-on experience with equipment that reflects modern industry standards but also improve safety while working with 208-volt three-phase electrical systems.

The partnership has already produced impressive results. In addition to GESA’s first full-time hire of an MMA alumnus, they have hired three interns supporting both field service operations and business administration.

According to Staley, “The interns signed on to be Field Service Technicians. They will spend time in our shop in Corpus Christi, Texas as well as out in the field all over the country, possibly outside of the country as well, to service, maintain, and repair turbines and generators that run power plants and refineries.”

Staley added that the interns will be “installing units, building power plants, exchanging parts on these units, troubleshooting, figuring out how to fix it, refurbishing and overhauling units, doing both minor and major scheduled maintenance work, as well as pop out to emergency jobs when they arise. Also, they will be helping the winding division of the company by re-winding rotors and being part of the whole process of getting a rotor in, troubleshooting, repairing, and getting it back to the site.”

As a result of rising demand for power, GESA is experiencing significant growth of its business as well as increased competition to attract skilled labor. By supporting the Academy, GESA seeks to build a long-term pipeline of potential employees. “Human Resources are the bottleneck of our business,” says Staley. “GE, Siemens, Field Core, Baker Hugh’s all say the same thing. We need more people!”

“What I like about GESA is that they are a family company treating the students like they are joining the GESA family.”
— Professor Ronald Boidi

Part of their strategy to train workers for employment at GESA has been to establish their own online education platform called Power University, available to both current and potential employees. The aim is to “teach power generation to the masses,” Staley says. He is interested in partnering with the Academy around these training efforts to leverage the school’s expertise in education.

In addition to supporting the electrical lab and gas turbine courses at the Academy, GESA was a title sponsor of the 2026 fundraising event, A Night by the Bay, where they also matched the American Bureau of Shipping’s $5,000 donation for scholarships.

“What I like about GESA,” says professor Boidi, “is that they are a family company treating the students like they are joining the GESA family. Parker and I will have the next 30 years to develop this program to support the combustion turbine energy market.”

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