– USA, MO – Evergy, Inc. (NYSE: EVRG) today announced the appointment of David Campbell to its Board of Directors as President and CEO, effective January 4, 2021, succeeding Terry Bassham, who will retire from the Company as soon as Campbell joins the Company.
“David is a proven leader with a track record of operational and financial success. His deep understanding of our industry and his ability to work with and balance the interests of all stakeholders, makes him our first and best choice to lead Evergy at this pivotal time,” said Board Chair, Mark Ruelle. “David’s appointment is the culmination of a comprehensive national search that included many highly qualified internal and external candidates. The Search Committee focused on identifying a proven leader with deep industry experience, who has a strong reputation for having led value-building transformations and one who understands Evergy and its importance to the communities we serve. In David, we have found that leader.”
“Over the past four months, we have made considerable progress on the early stages of the STP implementation and continue to receive positive feedback from many stakeholders,” said Paul Keglevic, member of the Search Committee and Co-Chair of the Board’s Strategic Review and Operations Committee. “It was my pleasure to work with David for six years earlier in our careers. I’ve personally seen him execute challenging plans in difficult circumstances and environments. He is a natural leader who was well-respected internally and externally. His leadership and execution skills will serve Evergy well as we further advance our STP.”
Ruelle concluded, “Terry’s leadership and the culture he built have put the company on a strong, sustainable track for continued success. Terry has had a long and distinguished career as a utility executive, board member, and colleague. We are grateful for his commitment to ensure a seamless transition and wish him well in his well-deserved retirement.”
About David Campbell
David Campbell is an experienced energy industry executive with more than twenty-five years of experience, including fifteen years of senior leadership roles in the electric power and utility sector. He has a proven track record of delivering value to key stakeholders at the companies he has served.
Currently, Campbell is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Vistra Corp., which serves nearly five million retail customers with electricity and natural gas and operates a generation fleet with approximately 39,000 megawatts of total capacity, including natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar, and battery storage facilities. As CFO of Vistra, Campbell has responsibility for the company’s accounting, financial, risk, tax, planning, investor relations, and strategy functions.
At Vistra, Campbell is part of the team that recently raised its 2020 outlook to the top end of the prior range and delivered at the high end of its 2019 financial guidance. Campbell’s areas of focus since joining the company in June 2019 include the development of the company’s portfolio transformation plan, the announcement of Vistra’s 2030 & 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets, the acquisition of Ambit Energy, and the articulation of the company’s capital allocation strategy and long-term fundamental outlook. As part of the company’s transformation, in September 2020 Vistra announced the retirement of multiple coal plants and the investment of $1.15 billion in solar generation and battery storage projects.
From 2014-2019, Campbell served as chief executive officer of InfraREIT, Inc., expanding his responsibilities in late 2016 to become chief executive officer of Sharyland Utilities. Over the five-year period, the companies’ electric transmission network grew at a double-digit annual rate, primarily through infrastructure investments to support the expanding energy economy in West Texas and the rapid growth of renewable generation in the Texas Panhandle.
As CEO, Campbell spearheaded InfraREIT’s Initial Public Offering in January 2015. Working closely with key stakeholders, InfraREIT and Sharyland restructured their portfolio through an asset swap with Oncor, enabling the companies to focus on transmission and delivering significant savings to Sharyland’s retail distribution customers. Subsequently, Campbell and his team led the process that resulted in the sale of InfraREIT to Oncor at a price representing a nearly twenty percent premium to the company’s unaffected share price. The Public Utility Commission of Texas unanimously approved both the asset swap with Oncor in 2017 and the sale of InfraREIT in 2019.
In 2013-14, Campbell served as president and chief operating officer of Bluescape Resources, an independent resource and investment company. At Bluescape, Campbell oversaw field and business operations and worked with the executive chairman to advance the company’s activities in the power sector, including the successful negotiation of the settlement between the bondholders of Edison Mission Energy and Edison International, a critical step in enabling EME to finalize its restructuring and exit bankruptcy.
Campbell worked at TXU Corp. and its successor, Energy Future Holdings, in various roles from 2004 to early 2013. As the chief executive officer of Luminant, the competitive power generation subsidiary of EFH Corp., Campbell oversaw an organization that included more than 15,000 megawatts of coal, nuclear, and natural gas plants with more than 4,000 employees across its generation, mining, wholesale marketing, and corporate functions.
During Campbell’s tenure, Luminant’s coal and nuclear operations consistently achieved top decile performance in capacity factors and top quartile or top decile performance in costs relative to industry benchmarks. Luminant also completed a $3.25 billion generation expansion program on budget and on schedule.
Before his role at Luminant, Campbell served as CFO of TXU Corp. At TXU, Campbell was part of the senior leadership team that led the company’s financial and operational turnaround from 2004 to 2007, achieving the top performance in the S&P 500 Utilities Index over the period.
Before joining TXU, Campbell was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led the corporate finance and strategy practice in Texas.
Within the electric power industry, Campbell has served on the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute and as a member of the National Nuclear Accrediting Board. Campbell currently serves on the boards of St. Mark’s School of Texas and the Hockaday School, as well as the Leadership Council of the Yale School of the Environment and the President’s Advisory Board of UT Southwestern Medical Center.
“Evergy has a talented and capable leadership team, a steadfast commitment to serving customers and communities, and a strong track record as an emissions-free energy supplier,” said David Campbell. “Evergy’s Board and management team have carefully developed and embarked on a high-performance strategic plan that contains the right elements to accelerate growth and provide tangible benefits for all the Company’s stakeholders. I join Evergy with a shared drive and commitment to provide customers with clean, affordable, reliable, and secure energy to power their lives while driving sustainable, superior value for shareholders. I look forward to working alongside the team to ensure that together we realize the potential Evergy has for continued success and growth.”
Campbell is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. He also holds a master’s degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
About Evergy, Inc.
Evergy, Inc. serves approximately 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri. We were formed in 2018 when long-term local energy providers KCP&L and Westar Energy merged. We are a leader in renewable energy, supplying nearly half of the power we provide to homes and businesses from emission-free generation. We support our local communities where we live and work and strive to meet the needs of customers through energy savings and innovative solutions.
For more information: https://investors.evergy.com/
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