Top FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) executives are facing job performance reviews as required by the March settlement of several shareholder lawsuits alleging that the company was damaged by secretly funding a scheme to bribe Ohio politicians for nuclear power plant subsidies.
In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing June 15, the board announced it had formed a “special review committee” of directors to assess the performance of current top executives and report to the full board by mid-September.
The SEC filing did not identify what it described as “current C-suite executives,” which typically include a company’s CEO, CFO and COO. The company’s website identifies its current leadership team as having nine members, including a member of the board. A company spokeswoman said the committee will determine whose job performance it will evaluate.
The shareholder settlement also required the resignations of six longtime members of the company’s board of directors and a reconstituted board, elected in May, to oversee the company’s future lobbying. (See FirstEnergy Shareholder Settlement: 6 of 16 Board Members Must Leave.)
CEO Steven Strah was appointed in March 2021 after serving about six months as president and acting CEO. Strah began his FirstEnergy career at The Illuminating Co. in 1984.
CFO Jon Taylor was promoted to his position in May 2020 and given expanded responsibilities in August 2021. Taylor joined the company in 2009.
Samuel Belcher, senior vice president of operations, oversees FirstEnergy’s regulated electric utility operating companies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York, as well as the company’s high-voltage transmission system. He joined the company in 2012.
In July 2021, FirstEnergy agreed to pay a $230 million fine in a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. By signing the agreement, the company admitted it conspired with former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his associates by secretly contributing millions of dollars to a 501(c)(4) charity Householder allegedly used to fund efforts to win passage in 2019 of a nuclear bailout bill, H.B. 6, and then defeat a referendum petition drive to allow voters to decide the issue.
Former FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones publicly admitted the company contributed about $60 million to the charity. Ohio lawmakers later revoked the bailout.
Jones and several other top executives were fired. Householder, expelled from the House, has pleaded innocent and faces a trial in January 2023. Two of his associates pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
