NEW CEO SMITH SAYS BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR WAPA MEANS KEEPING THE POWER ON FOR YOU AND ME
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Andrew Smith, the new executive director and chief executive officer for the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, says he intends to bring a fresh perspective to the troubled utility, and is working with other WAPA leaders to rebuild customer trust and create a reliable, affordable power grid for the Virgin Islands.
2022-02-14 12:33:07 - VI News Staff
Smith, 53, said he has “tactical experience of having been with companies dealing with financial difficulties,” and is looking forward to helping WAPA out of the current situation.
“I’m here because I truly believe that we have a path forward, or I would not be here,” he said.
Originally from Baton Rouge, La., Smith moved to San Francisco after graduate school to work for Chevron, followed by a stint in Houston. After Chevron, he moved to Tampa, Fla., to work for Raymond James Financial in the electric utilities and energy space. He worked with Entergy in New Orleans, then New York “where I worked in engaging from an investment banking perspective with power and utilities.”
He spent about 14 years in investment banking, primarily with JP Morgan, before deciding it was “time to do something different,” and joined Dynegy, a small company that he helped to triple in size.
He worked with GenOn Energy to “help bring them out of bankruptcy,” and prior to joining WAPA he was consulting for a large Louisiana utility.
In the month that he’s been with WAPA, Smith said he’s gotten a sense of the breadth and depth of the challenges the utility is facing, and the public scorn WAPA and its employees receive.
Staff “really like working at the Water and Power Authority and they believe in what they do. We as an organization recognize that we are a critical piece of the community,” Smith said. “We as a collective whole really believe in that and we recognize what we mean to the Virgin Islands. At the same time, we feel bad about ourselves — we as an organization. I think the team sort of feels like we lose all the time, and we don’t have any successes out there, which I don’t believe is true.”