Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors provides oversight and guidance to help FirstEnergy implement our long-term, sustainable growth platform and fulfill our mission to make customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and communities stronger, while offering a competitive dividend to shareholders, when appropriate.
We seek to maintain a well-rounded and diverse (by gender, race and ethnicity) Board representing a wide breadth of experiences and perspectives that balance the institutional knowledge of longer-tenured members with the fresh perspectives brought by newer directors. The following highlights illustrate current demographics and characteristics of our Board:
Board Diversity metrics (as of Oct 30, 2020)
40%
diverse (by gender, race
and ethnicity)
FirstEnergy and its Board are committed to upholding high standards for ethics and integrity—the cornerstone of effective corporate governance. We believe the following actions strengthen our policies and practices:
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Eliminated supermajority vote requirements
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Implemented a majority vote standard in director elections
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Implemented proxy access
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Expanded the responsibilities of the Corporate Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee to include oversight of sustainability and corporate responsibility
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Enacted a Board-level policy to consider diverse slates of qualified candidates for director seats and a goal to maintain at least 30% diverse members for the foreseeable future
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Appointed President, Steve Strah, to Acting CEO
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Appointed independent Director, Christopher Pappas, to the temporary position of Executive Director to assist the management team’s execution of strategic initiatives, engage with the company’s external stakeholders, and support the development of enhanced controls and governance policies and procedures going forward
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Formed a new subcommittee – led by independent Director, Leslie Turner – of our Audit Committee to assess governance and oversight processes and implement potential enhancements to the company’s compliance program
Board Committees
Our Board has five standing committees, each of which are solely comprised of independent Directors, as determined by the Board in accordance with our corporate governance policies, including the New York Stock Exchange listing standards and applicable Securities and Exchange Commission rules. The committees include: Audit; Compensation; Corporate Governance and Corporate Responsibility; Finance; and Operations, Safety and Nuclear Oversight.
FirstEnergy Leadership Team
Our leadership team oversees the business operations of the company and is dedicated to implementing the company's mission statement.
Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach
FirstEnergy’s integrated approach to corporate governance includes year-round engagement with a broad base of shareholders. This collaborative program results in productive dialogue among the Board, company leadership and shareholders on a wide variety of topics, including ESG-related matters. This process enables the Board and management to understand and consider the topics that matter most to our shareholders so that we can plan to address them effectively. Additionally, FirstEnergy conducted its first materiality assessment in 2020, which engaged key internal and external stakeholders to identify, prioritize and validate our most material ESG topics. Please see our Materiality section for more information.