Jay Stowe resigned as CEO of JEA. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 15, 2024 at 5:01 pm
It’s official: Jay Stowe is no longer JEA’s CEO, and Vickie Cavey has been appointed as interim CEO of the city-owned utility.
Stowe’s resignation as CEO is effective as of Monday, but he will remain in an on-call consulting role through Aug. 15.
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During a special meeting of the JEA Board of Governors on Monday, Chair Joseph DiSalvo said the separation was mutually agreed upon for the board to move in a different direction under new leadership.
“I want to clearly state this mutual decision has nothing to do with anything related to misconduct or any ethical transgressions. On behalf of the board, I want to thank Jay for leading JEA out from the 2020 scandal and restoring focus and credibility to JEA,” DiSalvo said.
Stowe took over as CEO in November 2020. He replaced interim CEO Paul McElroy, who was serving on an interim basis after the firing of then CEO Aaron Zahn.
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Zahn was found guilty by a federal jury April 15 of attempting to defraud the utility in a scheme that would have resulted in Zahn making millions of dollars in bonuses if JEA were sold.
Former Chief Financial Officer Ryan Wannemacher also was charged but was found not guilty.
Stowe said during Monday’s meeting that rebuilding the trust between the utility and the community was the biggest accomplishment during his tenure.
“Of the strategic direction that was grounded in our core values of safety, respect and integrity, so many JEA employees were already living those values, and together we found a way to breathe them back into life in a place that had been hurt and broken for far too long,” Stowe said.
Besides saying that he and the board of directors mutually agreed to part ways, Stowe did not give a specific reason why he was stepping aside.
Minutes after Stowe left the meeting, Cavey was appointed as interim CEO. Cavey is a 32-year veteran of JEA with knowledge of the utility’s operations and ties to the Jacksonville community.
Cavey retired from JEA in 2016, then returned as special assistant for external affairs to interim CEO McElroy in May 2020. She then assisted McElroy’s successor, Stowe, as board liaison from November 2020 through January 2021. She returned to the utility March 26 in a temporary role as liaison to the board.
Cavey began her JEA career in 1984 as a mechanical engineer in the power engineering division, one of JEA’s first female engineers. She then advanced to managerial roles in commercial key accounts and special projects prior to director roles overseeing strategic partnerships/acquisitions and strategy development and execution.
Cavey said JEA is in her blood and she is excited to move the utility forward.
“I’ve heard also the resurfacing of rumors. Please be certain that Mayor Deegan, the City Council, or this board have zero plans to sell the JEA,” Cavey said.
DiSalvo said replacing a CEO will take time. He said the utility will first have to hire a consulting firm that will perform an analysis of the utility’s organizational structure. That will help the utility determine what characteristics they are looking for in a new CEO.
He said that could be an eight-month process or maybe longer.
