Good morning. More finance chiefs are being considered for chief executive roles. But the C-suite trend of CFO-to-CEO increasingly includes execs with operational acumen of the core business and strategy experience, in addition to finance.
Take, for instance, Bob Frenzel, CEO of Xcel Energy (No. 302 on the Fortune 500), one of the largest public utilities in the country. Frenzel joined the company in 2016 as EVP and CFO. In 2020, he began serving as president and chief operating officer, where he led Xcel Energy’s four utility operating companies, in addition to the transmission, distribution, and natural gas operations. Frenzel was promoted to chairman, president, and CEO in 2021. His operational experience first began after college when he served in the U.S. Navy for six years, working as a nuclear engineering officer and weapons officer.
Frenzel's CFO roots continue to serve him well. "We spend a lot of time thinking about the cost of capital," he said of Xcel Energy during a fireside chat last week at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. "We deploy probably $10 billion of capital a year. As an industry, we're probably $200 billion a year of capital deployment."
U.S. electricity demand is projected to grow by 3% annually through 2030 following decades of stagnation, driven by the adoption of new devices and technologies, Al-driven data centers and the resurgence of manufacturing, according to the company's latest white paper.
