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Blue succeeding Farrell as Dominion CEO in October

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Blue succeeding Farrell as Dominion CEO in October

Dominion Energy CEO Thomas Farrell is stepping down from daily operations after 14 years leading one of the nation’s biggest utility providers.

Farrell is moving into a pure executive chair role with the Dominion board of directors as part of a major leadership transition taking hold in October. He will be succeeded as CEO and president by Robert Blue, who is co-chief operating officer and executive vice president.

Read more stories about Dominion on Hydro Review

Blue’s promotion is effective on October 1. Meanwhile, Dominion’s other co-COO Diane Leopold is taking that role on exclusively. Edward Baine will be promoted to president of Dominion Energy Virginia.

Farrell

Farrell joined Dominion Energy 25 years ago. He was named CEO in 2006 and added the role of board chairman one year later.

“One of my goals as CEO was to build a strong leadership team and a long-term succession plan,” said Farrell. “Today’s announcement is the next step in that process.”

Blue joined Dominion Energy in 2005 and has held a succession of services and operational executive roles since his promotion to officer in 2007, including vice president-State and Federal Affairs; senior vice president-Public Policy and Corporate Communications; senior vice president-Regulation, Law, Energy Solutions, & Policy; president-Dominion Virginia Power; and his current role as executive vice president and co-chief operating officer.

Blue

Prior to joining Dominion Energy, Blue served as counselor to the Governor and director of policy for Virginia Governor Mark Warner, as an attorney and partner at then-Hogan & Hartson, and as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. Blue has been a board member of a wide range of community organizations and is currently a member of the Virginia Health Care Foundation and Communities in Schools of Virginia as well as the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors. Blue is a graduate of the University of Virginia, Yale Law School and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. 

Leopold joined Dominion Energy in 1995 and became an officer in 2004. She held a wide range of executive roles in both the electric and natural gas businesses of the company prior to her current role as executive vice president and co-chief operating officer. These include senior vice president-Business Development & Generation Construction; senior vice president-Dominion Transmission; and executive vice president and CEO-Gas Infrastructure Group.

Leopold

Leopold currently serves as chair of the American Gas Association. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Virginia Union University and is on the board of directors of Markel Corporation and of the Growth and Opportunity Virginia Foundation. Leopold is a graduate of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and has a master’s degree in engineering from George Washington University. She earned her MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Baine joined the company in 1995 as an associate engineer after earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, and since has held numerous engineering, operational and management positions. He was promoted to vice president-Shared Services in 2009, and became vice president—Power Generation System Operations in 2013 and senior vice president—Transmission & Customer Service in 2015. In 2016, he was named senior vice president-Distribution, Power Delivery Group, and assumed his current role as senior vice president-Power Delivery for Dominion Energy Virginia in 2019.

Dominion provides electricity and/or natural gas to seven million customers in 20 states. The Richmond, Va.-based utility had announced goal to reach net zero carbon and methane missions from its power generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050.