American Electric Power named Kate Sturgess SVP, controller and chief accounting officer effective May 9. She will succeed Joseph Buonaiuto who retires July 1 after more than 20 years with the company. Sturgess most recently was VP, controller for Edison International and its Southern California Edison unit. Earlier, she held finance leadership positions at National Grid USA, including VP, U.S. controller. Before National Grid, Sturgess was a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Sturgess received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Sheffield in England and is a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
NiSource named Michael Luhrs as EVP of strategy and risk and the company’s chief commercial officer. He joins NiSource from Alliant Energy, where he served as SVP of customer experience and strategy. Prior to that, he was VP of integrated grid strategy and solutions and VP of market strategy and solutions at Duke Energy. At Duke, Luhrs also had roles as VP of retail programs, general manager business excellence, general manager energy supply and finance, director nuclear generation finance and manager resource planning. Coinciding with the change, Shawn Anderson, currently SVP of risk and chief strategy officer, will move into the role of EVP and CFO. Donald Brown, NiSource’s CFO, will assume the role of EVP and chief innovation officer, replacing Melody Birmingham, who has been named EVP NiSource and group president, NiSource utilities. In that role, Birmingham will lead the company’s six-state gas and electric business segments.
Balendra Sutharshan was named COO for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He will succeed Alan Icenhour, who is retiring after serving in the role since 2021. Sutharshan joined ORNL in 2021 as associate laboratory director for the Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate. Before joining ORNL, Sutharshan was COO for the Operational Systems Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Earlier, he served as COO for the Energy and Global Security Directorate at Argonne National Laboratory. He spent nearly 20 years leadership roles with Westinghouse Electric Co. Sutharshan holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering from MIT; a master’s in chemical and nuclear engineering and a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto; and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Solar technology and energy services provider SunPower Corp. appointed Steve Louden to its board of directors. Louden currently serves as chief financial officer at Roku Inc. Earlier, Louden held roles at Expedia, Washington Mutual, McKinsey & Co. and the Walt Disney Co.
This post appeared first on Power Engineering.
