JEA Announces New Leadership Team

Jay Stowe, JEA Managing Director and CEO, announced a new organizational structure. The new structure will reduce the number of direct reports to the CEO from eleven to seven. The direct reports will include a Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a Chief External Affairs Officer.

Jody L. Brooks has been named the new Chief Administrative Officer. In this role, she will have oversight of Audit Services, Corporate Records Retention, Critical Infrastructure Protection, and Electric System Compliance and Ethics. Brooks will work with the City of Jacksonville Office of General Counsel to oversee the legal activities of JEA. She was selected to be the first Chief Legal Officer for JEA in 2016 after supporting JEA’s efforts as counsel starting in 2013 as an attorney with the City of Jacksonville’s Office of General Counsel (OGC). She brings a wealth of knowledge about JEA, federal, state and local utility regulation and Florida Sunshine and Ethics laws.

David Emanuel has been named Chief Human Resources Officer. He has served in this role as an interim since November 2020. He is the Founder and President of Develop Empowerment, LLC, a firm that provides seasoned human resources professional consulting services to address employee life cycle events and helps companies create a productive culture that engages team members to grow and mitigate risk. Emanuel has been an HR executive for companies such as APR Energy, CIT, AEG, Bowne and Citigroup.

Sheila Pressley will lead JEA’s customer group as the Chief Customer Officer. She has served in that role since November 2020 and oversees the end-to-end customer experience and internal and external communications. Pressley has been with JEA for 18 years in various roles within the customer group and is heavily engaged in community and civic endeavors. She serves as a JAX Chamber Trustee and serves in leadership roles on several nonprofit agencies including Leadership Jacksonville, Northeast Florida Community Action Agency, and the National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition.

Brooks, Emanuel and Pressley will assume their new positions effective March 1, 2021.

Laura Dutton has been named to the new role of Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, Dutton will lead a team focused on corporate strategy and support, including Analytics, Continuous Improvement, Board Services, Real Estate, New Solutions, Market Development and Learning and Development. Dutton has served the public power industry for more than 17 years with experience in strategy development, planning and analysis. She also served as Senior Advisor in External Relations & Resources and Operations Support organizations. Most recently, she was responsible for Talent Planning at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Chattanooga Tennessee.

Dutton will start with JEA on March 8, 2021.

Each of the announced JEA leadership team members will earn a salary of $275,000.

The process of filling the other three roles on the leadership team is underway with a target completion date of July 31. Search firms will be hired to assist in filling the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief External Affairs Officer roles.