Xcel Energy burnishes C-suite

MINNEAPOLIS — Xcel Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: XEL) named president and chief operating officer Bob Frenzel as its new CEO, replacing chairman and CEO Ben Fowke, who moves to executive chairman. Executive Vice President Tim O’Connor, who was chief generation officer, was promoted to COO.

Xcel provides power to communities in several states, including Colorado. It’s in the midst of a move to cleaner types of energy relative to its coal-fired power plants, which it’s closing.

Frenzel joined the company in 2016 as chief financial officer and became president and COO in March 2020. He ran the energy firm’s four operating companies, and its transmission, distribution, and natural-gas work. Before Xcel, he was CFO at utility company Luminant and a senior vice president with its parent, Energy Future Holdings Corp., both in Dallas, with stints at Goldman Sachs and Arthur Andersen, his LinkedIn said.

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O’Connor has been EVP and CGO, also since March of last year. He was chief nuclear officer at Xcel from 2013 and has been with the company since 2007.

Fowke had been chairman, president and CEO since Aug. 2011. Xcel committed to “100% carbon-free electricity [for] customers by 2050” under his tenure, and hit the halfway-point last year, compared with 2005, a press release said. Fowke as executive chairman “will focus on national energy policy.” 

Shares in Xcel closed up 1% to a $38 billion market cap on the day.

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