MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – The Santee Cooper Board of Directors today named Michael Finissi, an electric utility executive with a 38-year record safely building and running generating stations, as Chief Operations Officer for the Monck Corner-based utility.
The Board also named Marty Watson, who has served as Santee Cooper’s Chief Power Supply Officer since 2021, to the position of Chief Commercial Officer. The Chief Power Supply Officer position will be eliminated. The changes are effective April 1.
Finissi will be responsible for the areas of Generation, Capital Projects & Construction, Transmission Line Operations, Transmission Technical, Power Systems Design & Engineering, Power Systems Project Management, and Operational Training. He has extensive experience managing generation and transmission operations and construction for electric and gas utilities in the U.S. and Canada, and he has accumulated a strong record in safety across the areas he has managed.
“Michael brings a wealth of experience successfully building and retrofitting generating units and managing large capital programs, at a time when Santee Cooper needs to add significant generating resources to meet a growing customer base,” said Santee Cooper President and CEO Jimmy Staton. “He also brings a demonstrated focus on safety, which complements Santee Cooper’s own strong safety culture. His leadership will be critical as we finalize our Integrated Resource Plan and begin building for the next generation of South Carolina residents and businesses.”
Finissi comes to Santee Cooper from Bruce Power, a commercial nuclear power facility in Ontario, Canada, where he was Senior Vice President of Performance Assurance. He has held senior executive positions with NiSource, a Columbus, Ohio-based utility with electric and gas generation, transmission, distribution, and gas storage serving four million customers, and with NiSource subsidiary NIPSCO, an electric and gas utility with 1.2 million customers serving northwestern Indiana. He began his career with American Electric Power, where he was plant manager for the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant and then Vice President of Generation Projects and Construction.
Finissi has a Bachelor of Science in electrical and electronics engineering from The Ohio State University and a Master of Business Administration from Capital University. He completed the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Executive Program.
“As Chief Commercial Officer, Marty will focus on leveraging Santee Cooper’s current assets and experience, such as with our water systems, as well as new or expanded services, as economic resources for Santee Cooper and the State,” Staton said. “This focus on new and expanded opportunities will bring significant benefit to our customers as well.”
Watson will be responsible for Energy Supply and Trading, Wholesale Markets, Fuels Forecasting, Property Management, Regional Water Systems, Business Development, and Beneficial Use and Pond Closure. He joined Santee Cooper in 2012 as a general engineer and has served as Senior Advisor to the President and CEO, Director of Supply and Trading and Manager of Generation Services. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Francis Marion University, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, and has been a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of South Carolina since 2012.