"The last two years have been the hardest,'' he said.

"I suppose when I got to 55, I thought I was going to be here for the rest of my life. I'd applied for a few jobs in my 50s and didn't get them and so I thought, 'This is it'.

"And then, I don't know, it was like all the doors closed on me. I felt I wasn't wanted anymore. All the meetings dried up, I wasn't invited.''

Walshe said that in-house shunning wasn't coming from ActewAGL CEO Michael Costello, who he considered a mentor, but "from others in the organisation''.

"Then you start hearing rumours, especially in the marketing area, that you're over-the-hill, that you're past it, you can't contribute anymore, that you're not up-to-date with the new things, digital and everything like this,'' he said.

At the age of 57, he was being made to feel "like a dinosaur''. It was a situation many older employees across many industries could probably relate to, feeling left behind in a quickly-changing workplace that didn't seem to value corporate knowledge or a deep understanding of the community it was trying to serve.

"That was probably my hardest time. I stopped talking to my mentors, it was probably the darkest period I went through. But then I thought, 'Bugger it, I'm not too old','' he said.

Walshe is retiring from ActewAGL on Friday, July 13 but says he still has a lot to give, not least building a respite centre in Queanbeyan for people with chronic or terminal illnesses.

As essentially the spokesman for ActewAGL, Walshe has been something of a rarity in the world of corporate communications: plain-speaking, personable, able to recognise the company he works for is not perfect and makes mistakes; but also that it is a human industry in which he believes its employees are doing their utmost for Canberra.

So, it's in that vein Walshe talks very candidly about his 37 years with ActewAGL, his passion for it, but also the toil it's taken and the mis steps it's made along the way.

Walshe started with the then ACT Electricity Authority as a cost clerk in the expenditure section in 1981. Fourth floor of 221 London Circuit.

"On your desk you had a pen and paper, a calculator and an ashtray,'' he said, with a laugh.

He leaves nearly four decades later with the lofty title of director of brand, communications and corporate affairs. Winter sunshine streams into his corner office, now on Bunda Street, as he packs belongings into boxes.

"I think if I had stayed, I would have become bitter and twisted and I didn't want to do that. Life's too short,'' he said.

"One of the things Michael [Costello] asked me to do was the re-branding of our networks business to Evoenergyand I loved it. It was a timeframe. I knew I had to deliver it by the first of January, which we did. I also did it to prove to people I could still do these things.''

Walshe has been the go-to man for the energy company for nearly 20 years, its public face, its spokesman when things went wrong - or right. And he's done it over most of that time as a single dad, his two sons now in their 20s. He'd be cooking the snags at the Australia Day breakfast sponsored by ActewAGL, dressing up for a promotion at Floriade, speaking at the launch of the Royal Canberra Show.

Walshe has also been a behind-the-scenes force raising money for charities across Canberra. On Australia Day last year, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to the communities of Queanbeyan and Canberra.

He says the "life-changing event'' that put him back on track was last year conquering the Kokoda Trail to help raise money for the respite centre in Queanbeyan. It made him realise he was not washed up.

"This is not about retirement. It's retirement from ActewAGL. I'm going to have a little bit of a break, probably four to six weeks, and then go and find something else to do. I don't know what. I'll just see what happens. I'll know when I find it,'' he said.

But he does sound bruised, rocked.

"I'm more bruised by it because I gave this organisation everything I possibly could. I mean, long hours, weekends, going to events, which probably impacted my family in some ways. It does hurt,'' he said.

There is something essentially decent about "Walshie''. Something old-school and gentle.

He was born in Albury, the oldest of nine children. His mum Joan was busy with the family, his dad Brian worked in wholesale fruit and vegetables, moving the family to Canberra in the early 1960s. His father later switched from potatoes to politicians, becoming an attendant at the House of Representatives and retiring in 2007 as its chief attendant. Joan and Brian still live in Holder.

Walshe grew up in Queanbeyan and Weston Creek, attending Catholic primary schools in Queanbeyan, Marist College in Canberra and then finishing his final two years at Stirling College.

"I was a bit of a wild child,'' he said. "Brother Joseph and mum came to an agreement that 'maybe Paul should find a new school to do years 11 and 12'.''

After school he worked in accounts for Canberra building company Project Coordination and then moved to the ACT Electricity Authority.

Over the years, he's worked for the company in administration, payroll, human resources, industrial relations. Then ActewAGL CEO John Mackay persuaded Walshe to take over its marketing and PR roles in 1999.

"I was petrified to do any public speaking,'' he said.

"Even now, I still get nervous doing a radio interview. People say, 'You're a natural'. Well, I'm not a natural.''

Walshe said he has always tried to be upfront with the media.

"I always had a great respect for the media, and I hope they always had a great respect for me,'' he said.

"I'll instil with these people [at ActewAGL], you need to be open and honest. Be transparent. And if you are transparent, you'll have a good relationship with the media. If you don't want to be transparent, you want to pull the wool over their eyes? Guess what? It won't work. They'll nail you.

"We've got some things wrong over the years. The data centre. We got that wrong, we didn't listen to the community.''

The ill-fated gas-fired power station and data centre was defeated by a residents-led campaign in the lead-up to the 2008 Assembly election.

"I think we thought we had a good rapport with the community and that they would accept it and they didn't,'' he said.

"That hurt us. That hurt our brand. We've recovered over a period of time.''

Walshe expects energy prices will continue to rise and to hurt the most vulnerable.

"Until we have a national policy that everyone buys into, I can't see wholesale prices shifting that much and it's going to hurt people. I see that now. For people who can afford solar, it's great for them. For people who can't afford it, they're the ones who are suffering at the end of the day. It's not going to be a short-term solution, it's not not going to be fixed overnight,'' he said.

The aggressive marketing by rival companies such as Origin will also make things difficult for ActewAGL, he believes.

"It's going to be a challenge,'' he said. "What Origin are doing now, I'm not directly involved in it now, but my guess is it's hurting us.''

Walshe said his role "changed completely'' when ActewAGL was created in 2000.

"It was more about the marketing side, around the brand,'' he said.

"The market opened up in the ACT and NSW. It was about attaining and keeping customers. But also the community support. That's probably the proudest thing I've been a part of the last 20 years, the community support program. It's been about making a difference.''

Walshe says ActewAGL's response to the 2003 bushfires remain a highlight of his career. Poles and wires were destroyed, thousands of homes were left without power and water. All services were restored within nine days as ActewAGL staff worked around the clock.

"It wasn't just the people out there getting the power back on or the gas back on, the water issues. It was also the other staff who just volunteered to come in. You know, to make sandwiches, assist in whichever way possible,'' he said.

"We had nine days down in the crisis control room at Fyshwick and, when you reflect on it, it was just amazing to see what an organisation could do. Then we turned around and put on the telethon and raised $300,000 for the bushfire appeal.''

Former ActewAGL CEO John Mackay says Walshe was and remains a close mate.

"He is a very good operator, hard working, highly dependable, a good leader,'' Mackay said.

"He understands the community; business, politics and media. These qualities have made him one of the best-known citizens in Canberra and Queanbeyan. He has made a very substantial personal contribution to several charities and community groups.

"He is as good a bloke as I have ever met”.

Walshe says he will miss the people of ActewAGL. He fears sometimes the company has "really lost compassion for our staff''.

"The people here, they are good people. They work hard. We don't always get it right. But they do work hard for the community, the customers. And they're dedicated to ActewAGL. I just hope it continues into the future.''

Walshe played and coached with his beloved AFL team, Queanbeyan Tigers, from 1988 and has lived in Queanbeyan since 1994. He remarried and also has a step-daughter and two grandchildren.

Walshe continues to sit on the board of alcohol and drug counselling service Directions ACT and just finished a 10-year stint with the Salvation Army's Red Shield Appeal. He hopes Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council will soon gift a parcel of land in Queanbeyan for the $1.5 million respite centre which will be run with the help of government, business and the community.

"I've always said, 'If you can make a difference in people's lives, give it a go','' he said.

"And I suppose John [Mackay] taught me that, that you can change people's lives and put a smile on their face. That's what I've tried to instil in this group here, that you can make a difference."