AES Indiana names Davis-Handy president, its seventh in past decade

Brandi Davis Handy

AES Indiana announced Wednesday it has named Brandi Davis-Handy president of the electric utility, with responsibility for overseeing budgeting, growth, customer experience, regulatory and community affairs, and community impact.

Davis-Handy, 45, has worked for the utility for eight years, most recently as chief customer officer.

The promotion means that AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Co., is now on its seventh president in the past 10 years. Many of them also carried the CEO title, but those roles are now split, and Ken Zagzebski, who was named president and CEO of the Indiana utility last August, will remain CEO, as well as senior vice president of parent AES Corp., based in Arlington, Virginia. He also served as CEO of the Indiana utility from 2011 to 2014 and as interim CEO from 2015 to 2016.

An AES Indiana spokeswoman said splitting the top management into separate CEO and president roles here is intended  to improve responsiveness to each market, making the president “accountable for scorecards and performance.” Parent AES Corp. also on Wednesday split the roles for its Ohio unit, based in Dayton, appointing Tom Raga as president, with Zagzebski as CEO of that utility as well.

“The Indiana and Ohio presidents each have deep community connections, understand residential and commercial client needs, and have visions for how to continue evolving a Midwest-based utility in a constantly changing environment,” the utility told IBJ in an email.

“Brandi is a trusted business and community leader,” Zagzebski said in written remarks. “Brandi has demonstrated herself to have a strong grasp of our entire business and has a deep passion for our customers.”

Her promotion comes as AES Indiana is seeking to raise electricity rates by approximately 7.3% for the average residential customer. The utility reached a settlement agreement on the rate increase with consumer groups and a wide assortment of large customers.

The utility said it plans to use the money for what it called rising operational costs, tree-trimming and other needs. It still needs approval from state regulators.

AES Indiana is also in the midst of retiring the last of its coal-fired generating unit. The utility said in 2022 it wants to convert the two remaining coal-fired units at Petersburg to natural gas by 2025, and add up to 1,300 megawatts of wind, solar and storage by 2027.

“I look forward to working alongside our team to better meet our customers’ and communities’ needs and expectations as we accelerate the energy transition happening here in central Indiana and across the state,” David-Handy said in written remarks.

Davis-Handy is a graduate of Lawrence Central High School and Hampton University in Virginia, where she received a bachelor’s degree in mass media arts. She returned to Indianapolis in 2005 after working as a journalist in North Carolina. She has also held leadership positions at One America and Project Lead the Way.

AES provides electricity to more than 500,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in central Indiana.