FPL Chief Silagy Retiring After Matrix Scandal

After greater than a decade main Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state’s largest energy firm, Eric Silagy is retiring.

Silagy, the chairman, president, and CEO of FPL, introduced Wednesday that he will likely be stepping down this 12 months and passing the baton to Armando Pimentel, ex-CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, one among a number of subsidiaries of FPL father or mother firm NextEra Inc. 

The FPL chief’s departure follows a tumultuous 12 months through which the corporate was accused of hiring political consultants who allegedly orchestrated a plan to govern media protection of FPL in Florida.

Pimentel will take over as chief govt subsequent month, and Silagy’s final day with the corporate will likely be in May after 11 years as head of the utility.

“We thank Mr. Silagy for his 20 years of devoted service to our firm, our clients and the communities the place we do enterprise and welcome Armando Pimentel again to NextEra Energy,” FPL spokesperson Chris McGrath wrote in a press release to New Times. “Armando has deep data of our firm and our tradition and he’ll deliver unbelievable self-discipline and trade expertise to his function main FPL.”

Last 12 months, FPL was on the heart of intertwining public scandals involving consultants it had enlisted from the Alabama-based political consulting agency Matrix LLC.

In June 2022, information stories detailed how Matrix consultants collected surveillance on Florida Times-Union columnist Nate Monroe after Monroe criticized the corporate’s wooing of Jacksonville metropolis council members. (FPL and Silagy denied involvement.) The following month, media stories chronicled how Matrix covertly exerted management of a Tallahassee-based information web site and used it to disguise FPL’s narrative as truth and assault naysayers.

Around the identical time, it was additionally revealed that Silagy had sicced his employees on then-State Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, who filed a pro-solar invoice in 2019.

A doc leaked final July — one among a whole lot cited in a bombshell Orlando Sentinel report revealed alongside environmental information nonprofit Floodlight — revealed that Silagy had copied and pasted the textual content of former New Times staffer Jerry Iannelli’s story into an electronic mail, despatched it to his minions, and tasked them with making Rodríguez’s life “a dwelling hell.”

“JJR at it once more,” Silagy messaged two of his executives on January 7, 2019, three days after the New Times story was revealed. “I would like you to make his life a dwelling hell…critically.”

After Rodríguez filed the invoice, he discovered himself on the heart of a marketing campaign to derail his 2020 run for re-election. The Sentinel reported that Matrix staff have been concerned in a plan to run auto salesman Alex Rodriguez as a third-party candidate towards the sitting senator and his Republican challenger, Ileana Garcia. The third-party Rodriguez garnered greater than 6,000 votes; Garcia eked out a victory, defeating the incumbent Rodríguez by a mere 32 votes out of greater than 215,000 forged.

Prior to being appointed president of FPL in 2011, Silagy was the corporate’s senior vp of regulatory and state governmental affairs. He additionally labored as FPL’s chief growth officer, managing photo voltaic, pure gasoline, and nuclear power tasks.

NextEra CEO John Ketchum, who has been named FPL’s new chairman, recommended Silagy’s legacy within the press launch saying his departure.

“Eric is a passionate advocate for steady enchancment and underneath his management FPL has reworked into the nation’s largest electrical utility, offering our clients with the nation’s most dependable service with payments considerably decrease than the nationwide common,” Ketchum stated. “His dedication to placing clients first was on full show final 12 months throughout hurricanes Ian and Nicole, the place his dedication, dedication and compassion drove the FPL group to revive energy in document time and rapidly put the state of Florida again on its toes.”

In November, Alabama Power president and CEO Mark Crosswhite introduced his retirement, efficient December 31, after main the utility for greater than eight years.

The announcement got here one month earlier than Floodlight and NPR reported {that a} handful of stories shops throughout Alabama and the Sunshine State had taken cash through the years from Matrix LLC, allegedly in alternate for constructive protection of Alabama Power and FPL.

This is a breaking story. Check again for updates.