Ohio utility giant American Electric Power has ousted its CEO, president, and board chair Julie Sloat after just over a year in the top job and without providing an explanation.
The Columbus-based utility named Sloat president and chief financial officer in August 2022, adding that she would become CEO January 1, 2023. Joining the company in1999, she had held several top regulatory and financial jobs at the parent company and at its AEP Ohio operating utility company.
In announcing the firing Monday ( Feb. 26), AEP said in an anodyne news release, “The Board determined, based on discussions with Sloat, that it is time to identify a new CEO to lead the company’s next chapter. This decision was not a result of any disagreement with Sloat regarding AEP’s operations, policies or financial performance, and was not made for cause or related to any ethical or compliance concern.”
Sloat’s defenestration came amid lackluster 2023 financial performance by the utility holding company, a move by noted corporate raider Carl Icahn to put two of his people on the AEP board of directors, and a continuing investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into whether the company played a role in the massive Ohio bribery scandal that was orchestrated by Akron-based FirstEnergy
The move by Icahn may be the most significant of the events surrounding Sloat’s dismissal. On February 12, AEP announced that it “has entered into an agreement with Icahn Capital L.P. and certain of its affiliates” to name Hunter C. Gary, senior managing director at Icahn Enterprises L.P and Henry P. Linginfelter, retired executive vice president of Southern Company Gas, to the AEP board.
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