FirstEnergy CEO Steve Strah abruptly retires. Search for outsider begins.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. Chief Executive Steve Strah, who has been the public face as the company navigates a massive bribery scandal, resigned from the board of directors and is retiring immediately, the company announced Thursday after the markets closed.
"Mr. Strah will receive no severance payments or severance benefits," FirstEnergy said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Strah spent 38 years with the company.
The abrupt change comes after a board shake-up and a management review.
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In July 2021, Strah signed a deferred prosecution agreement on behalf of the company. The utility agreed to pay a $230 million fine, cooperate with federal prosecutors and admit that it used dark money to bribe state officials, who in turn helped FirstEnergy land a $1 billion bailout bill.
"This is a humbling moment for our company," Strah told employees following the deferred prosecution agreement. "And we should take this moment to recognize that this type of conduct, at the highest levels in the company, was wrong and unacceptable. We have to ensure that something like this never happens again."
That agreement came a year after federal agents arrested then Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and four others. Prosecutors say FirstEnergy funneled $61 million in bribes through dark money political groups to put Householder in power and pass the bailout.
In October 2020, FirstEnergy fired Chuck Jones as its chief executive officer and named Strah as his replacement. That news came the same day two men implicated in the scandal pleaded guilty in 2020 in the bribery investigation.
The company named John W. Somerhalder II as the interim president and chief executive. Somerhalder, 66, has served as board chair since May and as an executive director between March 2021 and May 2022.
Somerhalder will be paid a base salary of $1.25 million and be eligible for performance bonuses of up to 200% of his salary.
The 11 member board of directors will conduct search for external candidates for the permanent job, the company said.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: FirstEnergy CEO Steve Strah abruptly retires; won't receive severance
