Central Maine Power has chosen a new CEO, while its most prominent leader of the last several decades, David Flanagan, takes a step back.
Joseph Purington is a Maine native who worked at CMP for almost three decades before taking on executive roles in New Hampshire at Eversource Energy in 2014. Back then, customers gave CMP relatively good reviews.
But that has all changed following extended storm outages, the botched rollout of a new billing system and controversy around the company's planned transmission line in western Maine.
CMP has received abysmal consumer ratings four years running, and state regulators reduced the company's allowed profits until it improves service for a sustained period.
"I'm really looking forward to digging in and getting started," Purington says.
Purington says the company has improved its performance since 2018, when former CEO Flanagan returned from other ventures to take a new position called executive board chair, in an effort to lift the company's fortunes.
Flanagan will now take a "senior advisory" position, while Purington continues the effort to restore trust.
"That's the bottom line, and we're going to work very hard every day to continue to build off what we've started and to achieve that goal. I'm a pretty relentless person when it comes to setting goals and achieving them, and I'll be focused on that," he says.
Interim CEO Scott Mahoney will take a position as vice president and general counsel for CMP's parent, Avangrid, which is the American arm of Spain-based energy giant Iberdrola.