Natalie Chesko
President
Aqua New Jersey
Aqua New Jersey keeps growing on Chesko’s watch. This month it closed on the Lake Tamarack Water System in Sussex County and committed about $1.4 million to upgrades there. The company has also completed six PFAS treatment facilities across the state and is replacing lead and galvanized service lines in Phillipsburg and Blackwood. Chesko, a Rutgers-trained bioenvironmental engineer and Ocean County native, has led the utility since 2024. It serves about 185,000 people in 11 counties.
John Griffith
CEO
American Water
Griffith is steering one of the biggest deals in the utility business: Camden-based American Water’s all-stock merger with Essential Utilities, which will create a combined company serving about 19.5 million people. The deal has cleared shareholders, federal antitrust review and regulators in Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia, and it is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2027. Griffith will lead the combined company, which keeps the American Water name and its Camden headquarters. He became CEO in 2025 after joining as CFO in 2022.
Kim Hanemann
President and Chief Operating Officer
PSE&G
Hanemann runs the day-to-day of a utility that is upgrading at a steady pace. PSE&G invested about $3.7 billion in its system in 2025 and expects to spend about $4.2 billion this year, according to PSEG. It is also testing new ways to manage the grid, including a pilot that offers customers $5,000 toward home batteries that can power their houses during peak demand. Hanemann oversees electric, gas and customer operations, plus the company’s major construction projects.
Andrew Hendry
Region President and VP of Governmental and External Affairs
Atlantic City Electric
Hendry is the face of Atlantic City Electric in South Jersey, where the utility serves about 572,000 customers. He leads its relationships with elected officials and community and business leaders at a time when reliability and affordability are front and center. The utility reports a 45% drop in outages over a decade, and its $93 million Powering the Future program is adding grid capacity for solar and hardening substations against storms. Hendry, a former CEO of the New Jersey Utilities Association, took the role in November 2025.
Blue Jenkins
CEO
South Jersey Industries
Jenkins takes over SJI as it brings one of the nation’s largest food waste-to-renewable natural gas plants online in Linden. The plant is expected to start operating later this year and to produce about 3,783 MMBtu of renewable gas a day, according to SJI. Its utilities are also replacing aging pipe, including up to 50 miles at Elizabethtown Gas under a $100 million program approved in March. Jenkins assumed the role this summer, succeeding the retiring Mike Renna, who was just named the American Gas Association’s 2027 board chair.
Shaun Keegan
Co-Founder and CEO
Solar Landscape
The company Keegan co-founded in Asbury Park in 2012 has become the nation’s No. 1 rooftop commercial solar developer, according to Solar Power World’s 2025 rankings. Solar Landscape has 800 megawatts of capacity across 75 million square feet of warehouse and commercial rooftops in more than a dozen states, according to the company. Through community solar, nearby residents can subscribe to the power. Keegan and COO Corey Gross were 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year honorees in New Jersey.
Ralph LaRossa
Chair and CEO
PSEG
LaRossa is overseeing a plan to invest $24 billion to $28 billion from 2026-30, most of it in PSE&G’s regulated grid, while trying to hold the line on customer bills. PSE&G kept residential gas rates flat through last winter. On the generation side, PSEG’s nuclear fleet, New Jersey’s largest source of carbon-free power, ran at a 91% capacity factor in 2025. LaRossa joined PSE&G as an associate engineer in 1985 and has been CEO since 2022. He also serves the state as chair of Choose New Jersey.
Nadine Leslie
Chair and CEO
Middlesex Water
Middlesex Water plans to invest about $506 million in its system from 2026-28. Roughly half of that, about $255 million, will add PFAS treatment at its Carl J. Olsen plant in Edison. In February, state regulators approved a rate settlement that funds the work. Leslie, a former CEO of SUEZ North America, joined Middlesex as CEO in 2024 and became Chair in 2025. The company, founded in 1897, serves more than half a million people in New Jersey and Delaware.
Mark McDonough
Senior Vice President, President
American Water, N.J. American Water
New Jersey American Water has invested more than $1.4 billion in its water and wastewater systems over the past few years, according to the company. The work includes replacing or rehabilitating nearly 120 miles of aging pipe, replacing lead service lines and treating for PFAS. McDonough says the goal is sturdier, more dependable service that stays affordable. A former federal special agent and attorney, he has led the state’s largest investor-owned water utility since 2021. It serves about 2.9 million people.
Chaz McFeaters
President and Chief Nuclear Officer
PSEG Nuclear
McFeaters runs the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear stations at a moment when nuclear power is back in the spotlight in New Jersey. PSEG’s nuclear fleet produced 30.9 terawatt-hours in 2025, according to the company. This year, Gov. Mikie Sherrill lifted the state’s longstanding barrier to new nuclear plants and named McFeaters to her Nuclear Task Force. He has more than 30 years in the industry and joined PSEG in 2016 as site vice president at Salem.
Pat Migliaccio
SVP and Chief Operating Officer
New Jersey Natural Gas
Migliaccio runs a utility that keeps adding customers while it tests new ways to cut emissions. NJNG served about 595,000 customers at midyear, up about 6,000 since September, according to New Jersey Resources. Its SAVEGREEN energy-efficiency program invested $78.8 million in the first nine months of the fiscal year and has reached more than 115,000 customers. Migliaccio is also overseeing NJNG’s carbon capture pilots, an initiative that helps turn emissions from building heating systems into a nontoxic solid called pearl ash.
Doug Mokoid
President
JCP&L and FirstEnergy New Jersey
Under Mokoid, JCP&L is pairing record investment with a bid to soften the blow on bills. The utility has put $1.5 billion into its system over three years and reports reliability up 38% so far this year. Its newest rate proposal would delay the impact on residential bills until 2028 while funding a five-year, $6.9 billion capital plan. Mokoid, a Pennsville native with Rutgers engineering and law degrees, has led the 1.2 million-customer utility since 2024.
Kendra Morris
CEO, Regulated Water
Veolia North America
Morris leads Veolia’s regulated water business in North America, which includes the New Jersey utility serving more than 1.1 million residents and businesses. In New Jersey alone, Veolia has invested $274 million in water and wastewater upgrades. It has also replaced more than 16,000 lead service lines and deployed 12 PFAS treatment systems, according to the company. Morris, who previously led Veolia’s Northeast Region, sits on the board of the National Association of Water Companies.
Patricia Mullin
VP, New Jersey Operations
JCP&L
Mullin oversees the crews and planning behind JCP&L’s reliability push. The utility reports reliability improved 15% in 2025 and 38% so far this year, following $1.5 billion in investment over three years. A JCP&L veteran who started at the company in 1985, she returned to New Jersey in 2025 after leading FirstEnergy’s Ohio operations, which serve 2.1 million customers.
Michele O’Connell
CEO
Orange and Rockland Utilities
O’Connell’s utility is spending $315 million on its electric system this year, according to the company. The work includes new substations and remote-controlled smart grid devices. It caps more than $2 billion in improvements since 2016 that have cut the number of customers affected per outage by 15%. O&R and its New Jersey subsidiary, Rockland Electric, serve about 1 million people. A Wood-Ridge native and NJIT engineer, O’Connell became Chair of the New Jersey Utilities Association in May.
Melissa Orsen
SVP, President
SJI, South Jersey Gas
Orsen leads the utilities that deliver natural gas to about 700,000 South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas customers, according to SJI. In March, state regulators approved up to $100 million for Elizabethtown Gas to replace as much as 50 miles of aging cast iron and steel main through 2027. A former CEO of the N.J. Economic Development Authority, Orsen joined SJI in 2017. She recently finished two years as the first woman operations leader to chair the New Jersey Utilities Association.
Kris Singh
Founder, Chairman and CEO
Holtec International
Singh’s Camden-based Holtec is in the middle of a historic year. It is in the final stages of restarting Michigan’s Palisades plant, which would make it the first U.S. nuclear plant to return from retirement. It is developing its SMR-300 small modular reactor, with the first two units planned for Palisades. In September, it launched an initial public offering on the Nasdaq. Holtec also holds about 75% of the U.S. dry spent fuel storage market, according to the company. Singh, a Penn-trained engineer with more than 180 patents, founded Holtec in 1986.
Wendy Stewart
President and General Manager
Atlantic City Sewerage Co.
Stewart keeps the wastewater moving in Atlantic City, where her company runs the sewage collection system for about 7,700 customers, according to state regulatory filings. She took the top job during the COVID-19 pandemic, after 14 years in a financial role at the company and an earlier career in the casino industry. She serves on the board of the New Jersey Utilities Association.
Michael Stivala
CEO
Suburban Propane
Stivala is turning a 98-year-old propane company into a renewable energy player. Under him, Whippany-based Suburban Propane launched Suburban Renewables. It bought renewable natural gas facilities in Arizona and Ohio for $190 million, including one that runs on manure from about 55,000 dairy cattle. Suburban serves about 1 million customers from roughly 700 locations in 42 states, according to the company. Stivala has been CEO for more than a decade.
Alan Weland
Regional President, Veolia New Jersey
Veolia
Weland leads a water utility that has put $274 million into upgrading its New Jersey water and wastewater systems in less than two years, according to the company. Veolia has replaced more than 16,000 lead service lines in 60 communities, deployed 12 PFAS treatment systems and expanded by buying the Manalapan Township water system. It serves more than 1.1 million residents and businesses across the state. Weland previously served as Vice President and General Manager of the New Jersey operations.
Stephen Westhoven
CEO
New Jersey Resources
Westhoven has NJR on a growth run. The company raised the low end of its earnings guidance this summer and plans to invest $4.8 billion to $5.2 billion through 2030, mostly at New Jersey Natural Gas, according to NJR. Its Clean Energy Ventures unit now has about 537 megawatts of commercial solar in service. A 1990 hire who rose through the energy services business, Westhoven has been CEO since 2019. He leads a Fortune 1000 company with more than 1,300 employees.
