Rod West joins small bench of Black CEOs for publicly traded companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion

By Arkansas Black Vitality Staff

March 14, 2025 – A former Entergy Corp. executive responsible for the operational and financial performance of the company’s five utilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas was named the nation’s newest Black CEO of a publicly traded company with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion.

Rod West, who retired from Entergy at the end of January, took over as CEO of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. on March 7. At Entergy, West previously served as its group president of utility operations, overseeing the company’s electric and natural gas distribution and customer service operations. He also led the utility giant’s engagement with state and local regulators and regulated retail commercial development and innovation.

From 2010-2017, West served as executive vice president, chief administrative officer at Entergy, and president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans. West earned his Juris Doctor and MBA from Tulane University. He also has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he lettered three years and played linebacker and tight end for Coach Lou Holtz and the Fighting Irish’s 1988 National Championship football team.

In his new role at Algonquin, West will lead a diversified utility with over 1 million customers, over $2.3 billion in annual revenue, and operations in the U.S. and Canada.  In the past few years, Algonquin has been selling off transmission and renewable energy assets as the company looks to become a “pure-play” utility operator.

While at Entergy, West was directly involved in transitioning the New Orleans-based energy giant from a hybrid power generator to a pure-play utility operator with subsidiaries in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Entergy Arkansas is the largest electric utility in Arkansas with over 730,000 customers in 63 counties.

“Algonquin has undergone a transformation and there’s significant opportunity to advance its position as a pure-play regulated utility,” said West. “I am excited to begin working alongside the Algonquin team as we continue to transition the Company to create sustainable and meaningful value for its stakeholders.”

As the newest Black CEO of a publicly traded company with revenues exceeding $1 billion, West joins a small list of Black chief executives leading large U.S. corporations.

In the past few weeks, most Fortune 500 companies in the U.S.  have dumped all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) mandates to expand the interviewing of diverse talent pools for senior executive positions. Under a Jan. 20 executive order, President Trump declared all federal DE&I initiatives as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”

Although based in Ontario, Canada, Algonquin is the parent company of Liberty Utilities, a utility based in Joplin, Mo., with over 1.2 million customers in primarily rural and small urban communities in Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma.

In Arkansas, Liberty Utilities provides water services to more than 15,000 in Pine Bluff. It also offers electricity, water, and wastewater services to nearly 6,000 customers in White Hall and surrounding communities in Jefferson County. In January, the Arkansas Public Service Commission approved new base rates for Liberty Utilities water and wastewater customers in Banner Township, Hensley, White Hall and Woodson.

Last week, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced he had initiated an investigation into billing issues reported by Liberty Utilities customers in White Hall.

“After receiving information and a complaint from White Hall Mayor Noel Foster about dramatic increases on water bills and insufficient answers from Liberty Utilities Central, I have directed my Public Protection Division to open an investigation into Liberty Utilities Central’s billing in Jefferson County,” said Griffin.