David Mills was elected to the PJM board’s chair-elect position in 2024, putting him in place to assume leadership if the prior chair, Mark Takahashi, left the role.
The PJM Board of Managers has elected David Mills to serve as its chair.
“It is an honor to lead this board at a time when continuity and stability are critical to our mission of preserving the reliability and affordability of the grid,” Mills said in an announcement PJM published June 5. “Our stakeholders have made clear their desire to strengthen communication channels with the board, which we have already taken steps to accomplish. I look forward to working together to make the hard choices required of us to maintain the balance between electricity supply and demand.”
He was elected to the board’s chair-elect position in 2024, putting him in place to assume leadership if the prior chair, Mark Takahashi, left the role. Takahashi was not elected to another term on the Board of Managers during the May 12 Members Committee meeting and took his name out of the running before the vote was set to be reconsidered the following day. Mills was elected formally to be the board’s chair on May 14.
“David is a very capable leader,” PJM CEO Manu Asthana said in the announcement. “He understands the tradeoffs required to preserve reliability and affordability, and he has demonstrated his commitment to listening to and working in partnership with our stakeholders. I am confident that the reins of the PJM board are in able hands.”
During the May 12-14 PJM Annual Meeting, Mills said he supports the board taking steps to improve communications with stakeholders. He said he would seek to add agenda items to future Members Committee meetings for attending board members to speak with stakeholders during the meeting, as well as for them to remain accessible after the meeting and wait until the following day to return home.
Mills first was elected to the board in 2021. He has chaired the Competitive Markets Committee and is a member of the Nominating Committee. Prior to joining the board, he served as Puget Sound Energy’s chief strategy officer and previously worked for the Bonneville Power Administration. He earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from Portland State University.
