The directors of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. have chosen a former senior Entergy Corp. executive to be CEO of the company as it begins life as a pure-play regulated entity.
Rod West will take the helm at Ontario-based Algonquin March 7, taking over from Chris Huskilson, a board member and interim CEO who was tapped last spring to lead the parent of Liberty Utilities on a more permanent basis. Huskilson will remain a board member.
West—who played on the University of Notre Dame’s 1988 national champion football team—is finishing up a career of more than 25 years at Entergy Corp., where he was group president of utility operations for about seven years before stepping into a senior advisory role Nov. 1. Before overseeing Entergy’s five operating companies, he was the company’s chief administrative officer for seven years and president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans for three years.
“We are confident Rod’s deep experience and track record of delivering outstanding customer service and creating value in the regulated utility industry will accelerate the company’s transformation,” said Randy Laney, chairman of Algonquin’s board. “We are excited about Algonquin’s future and look forward to working closely with Rod and the management team to execute our strategy and unlock value for our stakeholders.”
Algonquin’s hiring of West to be its next CEO comes after an eventful two years. Most recently, the company completed the sale of its renewables group and its 42% stake in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure for about $2.8 billion combined and said CFO Darren Myers will soon leave the company.
Before that, activist investor Starboard Value LP had challenged the board’s strategy and negotiated two seats at the table for its representatives. Starboard’s push had come in the wake of the abrupt exit of then-CEO Arun Banskota in August 2023 and the collapse four months prior of Algonquin’s plan to pay about $2.6 billion for the Kentucky Power Co. division of American Electric Power.
Investors appeared to approve of West’s hiring: Shares of Algonquin (Ticker: AQN) were up nearly 4% to about $4.50 in midday trading Jan. 31. Over the past six months, however, they are still down more than 25%, a slide that has trimmed the company’s market capitalization to about $3.4 billion.
