The leadership structure at the top of Nashville Electric Service is shifting.
President and CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin’s role remains untouched. But Broyles-Aplin announced several executive changes at the July 22 Electric Power Board meeting that include transitioning Brent Baker, the utility’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, to an advisory role consulting with Broyles-Aplin on upcoming battery storage projects and other innovation initiatives.
NES’ top brass says the leadership changes are meant to support the utility as it looks to implement updates and improvements by way of its “Four Pillars” initiatives, borne out of a shaky response to the historic Winter Storm Fern.
But a Metro Nashville Council member and 2027 mayoral
candidate claims that Baker’s taking the fall for the challenges that emerged as NES sought to restore power to 230,000 customers during the late-January storm.
In a Facebook post, District 32 council member Joy Styles said Baker was at fault for the rocky storm response and characterized his new role as a demotion.
“Though he’s not fired as he should be, he is demoted and no longer able to be responsible for any more shortcomings to Nashville residents,” Styles said. “It is unfortunate that no one had the strength of conviction to put him on administrative leave immediately. It is all too clear that it was his job to make sure that we had reinforcements available on Sunday morning when we woke up.”
Styles pushed back against NES’ framing July 28 and said even though much time has passed since the storm hit, plenty of Nashvillians are still angry about how they were affected back in late January and early February.
Styles said that though she’s worked a lot with the utility and Broyles-Aplin during her second term as a council member, she doesn’t agree with the messaging approach six months on.
“The reality, to me, is if we are on a trust and faith rebuilding mission, you don’t get a stronger message than, ‘We are holding a person accountable for their failure of action,’” Styles said.
In her post, Styles also took aim at Mayor Freddie O’Connell for “following lockstep with NES and believing they had it all under control.” She’s one of a handful of early candidates who have announced they’ll be running against O’Connell as he seeks a second term in office.
Baker was, for a time, the most visible NES official in the ice storm’s immediate aftermath. He was the utility’s representative at daily weather briefings facilitated by O’Connell’s office starting Jan. 25, the day after the storm hit.
But by Jan. 29, NES had been shunned and began hosting separate briefings on its progress to restore power across the city, after O’Connell criticized the utility for its communication not matching “the rest of their effort on the ground.”
O’Connell’s public criticism continued days later, when the mayor summoned NES brass to a meeting meant to address an “unacceptable” proposed pace of restoration. O’Connell left it saying he believed NES was “unequipped to communicate about a crisis” and “had a hard time meeting the moment of the largest crisis in their institutional history.”
The Electric Power Board commissioned an independent review of the utility’s response to the storm in February, with a preliminary draft finding that NES lacked a standardized process for calculating and communicating estimated power restoration times and had a “less than clear view” of its chain of command structure. The full version, released last month, found that the utility’s delayed request for outside help may have extended power outages by as many as five days.
NES did not weigh in on Styles’ comments. Instead, Laine Arnold, who has officially joined NES as its first-ever chief communications officer, outlined exactly who’s being shuffled around.
Baker’s role, for example, will be filled on an interim basis by 30-year employee Brad Heck. He’ll stay in the temporary role through the end of 2026 as NES conducts a national search for a permanent replacement. Brandon Whitlock is backfilling Heck’s vacated role as interim vice president of operations for transmission.
The utility’s current chief legal officer, Laura Smith, is pulling double duty as interim executive vice president to “take on responsibilities in the interim as they arise during this reorganization,” Arnold said.
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him with questions, tips and story ideas at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Exec changes mark latest chapter in Nashville Electric storm fallout
