Chief Executive Officer (Uniondale)

Our Client As a not-for-profit public utility for Long Island and the Rockaways, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) ensures that the 1.2 million customers have the clean, reliable, affordable energy they deserve.

Formally created by the New York State Legislature, the Long Island Power Authority Act of 1986 designated LIPA as a corporate, municipal agency and a political subdivision of the State of New York, with essential governmental and public powers. In 1998, LIPA became the provider of electric service for Long Island (excluding the Villages of Rockville Centre, Freeport, and Greenport) and the Rockaways after acquiring the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) as a wholly-owned subsidiary through a merger.

While LIPA owns the electrical transmission and distribution system, it outsources most of the management services and power supply used to operate the electric grid. Beginning in 2014, with changes made by the LIPA Reform Act, LIPA contracts with PSEG Long Island, a subsidiary of the Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company, for management services, power delivery, and customer service. LIPA provides service to customers under the PSEG Long Island brand name.

As the steward of the electricity system, LIPA has the ultimate authority and control over the electrical assets to best serve customers’ needs. The current contract with PSEG Long Island expires on December 31, 2025, and a process is underway to select a new service provider under a competitive procurement.

Since its inception in 1998 as a public power utility, LIPA has been committed to protecting the environment. LIPA’s vision for power supply is to provide clean, reliable, and resilient electricity to our customers at an affordable cost that both maintains the economic competitiveness of our region and minimizes the economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions for Long Island and the Rockaways by encouraging the electrification of vehicles, buildings, and equipment.

LIPA’s environmental leadership includes some of the first and largest renewable energy projects and initiatives to promote decarbonization in New York State:

1. In 2015, LIPA signed a Power Purchase Agreement for South Fork Wind, the first offshore wind farm permitted in federal waters and New York State. The 132 MW project, now operational, is expected to power 70,000 homes and offset 300,000 tons of carbon emissions.
2. In 2021, LIPA launched a procurement for at least 175 MW of bulk energy storage projects. As of September 2024, negotiations are ongoing with developers of several projects in Suffolk County for completion in 2025.
3. In 2023, the Board voted to make LIPA the first electric utility in New York State to implement Time-of-Day (“TOD”) rates as the standard billing option, enabled by LIPA’s full deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Most customers will be transitioned to this new rate in 2025.
4. By 2030, Long Island and the Rockaways will have 1,200 MW of rooftop solar. As a leader in rooftop solar, LIPA exceeded New York’s target solar goal for 2025 four years early and accounts for 40% of statewide rooftop solar projects – roughly three times its share of statewide electric sales.
5. LIPA has achieved 5.26 trillion British thermal units (“TBtu”) toward its energy efficiency goal of 7.9 TBtu by 2025. To assist customers in reducing their energy usage, LIPA offers a wide selection of incentives, rebates, and programs to residential and commercial customers on Long Island and the Rockaways.

The Role Based in Uniondale and reporting to LIPA’s Board of Trustees (Board), the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be responsible for leading LIPA's work and developing LIPA as an organization. The CEO will be accountable for advancing LIPA’s purpose of providing clean, reliable, and affordable electric service for our customers, including achieving the results specified by the Board policy.

As the highest-ranking executive at LIPA, the CEO will lead the organization's strategic direction, ensure its ongoing financial viability, make smart investments, generally make major corporate decisions, ensure the highest degree of performance in the service provider’s overall operations and resources, and act as the main point of communication between the Board and the management team. The CEO currently has nine senior executives and directors as direct reports.

Appointed by the Board, they will serve as the company's public face and regularly engage with the community and key stakeholders. Moreover, as the culture carrier of the organization, the new CEO will uphold LIPA’s core values:

1. Service – LIPA’s work is a service. Everything they do is for the benefit of their customers.
2. Collaboration – Operate as one LIPA team. Everyone is included.
3. Excellence – One plan with relentless implementation. Clear performance goals.

The CEO will adhere to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct and will ensure these standards throughout the organization.

Essential Job Functions

1. Providing overall leadership for the work at LIPA, overseeing, directing, and managing the provision of clean, reliable, and affordable power to customers in Long Island and the Rockaways, and stewarding LIPA’s electric system assets to provide those services in the future.
2. Leading the organization in developing and implementing plans that support LIPA’s mission and objectives, monitoring progress, ensuring the quality and effectiveness of the work, organization, and staff in achieving established goals, and modifying plans in response to changing internal and external factors.
3. Leading the management of the work at, and the engagement with, the Service Provider (under the long-term Operations Services Agreement) to ensure the best outcomes for customers.
4. Leading the organization at LIPA in ensuring a high-performance team with accountability for results and high-quality work, developing the skills, policies, and capacity to deliver the needed results in line with a culture of service, collaboration, excellence, and respect.
5. Fostering a highly effective Executive Team, ensuring alignment and effective, efficient, and purposeful use of resources.
6. Building and maintaining effective relationships with stakeholders and partners, including those on LIPA’s Community Advisory Board, advocates, communities, labor, customer associations, and relevant federal, state, and local government entities.
7. Ensuring good governance practices in partnership with the Board, including:
1. Keeping the Board informed of significant operational or financial challenges, emerging electric industry trends, technological developments, general matters of energy and environmental policy, and statutory and fiduciary obligations.
2. Developing policy alternatives for the Board’s consideration, including informing the Board of trade-offs between policies.
3. Providing sufficient direction and clear communication of the Board’s policies to LIPA’s staff and Service Provider.
8. Partnering with the Board to collaboratively establish long-range goals, strategies, budgets, and plans that ensure efficient alignment of limited resources to LIPA’s most important priorities, consistent with LIPA’s purpose and the Board’s policies. Monitors performance and results.
9. Being accountable for formulation and execution of multi-year strategy. Interprets strategy each year by developing performance metrics, budgets, and the Work Plan. Approves company-wide policy.
10. Facilitating management development and succession, proactively making necessary adjustments to maintain effective and efficient operations at every level.
11. Managing a system of oversight, incentives, and budgets for LIPA’s Service Provider that ensures sound fiscal and operating practices and high performance for all LIPA’s assets and resources, including those managed daily under contract by the Service Provider.
12. Participating in industry associations such as the Large Public Power Council, Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, and American Public Power Association to maintain productive working relationships with peer executives in the utility industry to bring industry best practices to LIPA and its staff.
13. Serving as the public face and spokesperson for LIPA to the public and stakeholders and maintaining effective working relationships with key New York State government officials.

Candidate Profile The successful candidate will have a strategic mindset and a passion for execution. Ideally, the new CEO will have 15+ years of demonstrated leadership experience either in the power or utilities sector or in a leading energy agency and have experience in running an organization of meaningful size and complexity. They will have an understanding of how to set strategic direction as well as the day-to-day of a public utility and have had exposure to operations, renewable/clean energy policy and programs, regulatory and legal affairs, customer service, and external stakeholder engagement. Demonstrated relevant financial expertise and exposure to federal and state energy policy regulation is a plus.

The new CEO must have excellent communication skills, including the ability to provide a clear, consistent, and compelling understanding of LIPA’s direction and achievement. The CEO must also be able to create continued confidence in the organization and assimilate into and impact LIPA’s organizational culture. While LIPA provides flexible work options, the CEO is expected to maintain an in-office presence.

The new CEO must have excellent public engagement skills and the ability to work closely and effectively with public officials, regul