- After about six years in the position
- Accolades, praise, thanks and good wishes for Zoi
- Badar Khan taking over
- Zoi spoke at length and said 181 words
(exechange) — Los Angeles, California, August 2, 2023 — Cathy Zoi, chief executive of EVgo, leaves her position. As announced by EVgo Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, Catherine (Cathy) Zoi leaves her post as chief executive officer at the electric-car charging company, after about six years in the role, effective on or about November 9, 2023.
Cathy Zoi’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Badar Khan, a former President at National Grid USA.
Already a director
Khan has already been a member of the board of directors of EVgo. Directors-turned-executives represent a blend of outsider and insider.
They don’t have the constraints of a pure insider when it comes to leading painful changes or making unpopular decisions, and they have more company knowledge than a pure outsider.
Having been a director, Khan understands the expectations and dynamics of the board and has knowledge of EVgo’s organization, risk-management practices and strategy.
“The right time”
The planned management change is explained as follows. Zoi stated: “I believe that it is the right time to implement this leadership transition.”
Precise information regarding Cathy Zoi’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retire/cease serving”
EVgo said: “Zoi will retire as CEO and from the Board.”
EVgo further said: “[O]n August 1, 2023, Ms. Catherine Zoi notified the board of directors (the “Board”) of the Company of her decision to cease serving as Chief Executive Officer of the Company and as a member of the Board, effective on or about November 9, 2023.”
“Not the result of any disagreement”
EVgo stated, regarding the change: “Ms. Zoi’s resignation was not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices, including the Company’s accounting principles and practices and internal controls.”
Share price decline since August 2021
The announcement follows a decline in EVgo Inc.’s share price of 56% since August 2021.
In the position of CEO since 2017
Cathy Zoi became CEO of the Company in 2017.
To promote a smooth transition, Zoi will serve as an advisor to the Company and work closely with Khan through the end of 2023.
Catherine Zoi has served as EVgo’s Chief Executive Officer since November 2017, first as Chief Executive Officer of Holdco, beginning in November 2017, and then as Chief Executive Officer of the Company following the Closing of the Business Combination.
She has also served as a director of the Company since July 2021 and was a member of the board of Holdings from January 2020 until the Closing of the Business Combination.
Zoi has led EVgo’s growth and its establishment as one of the preeminent public fast charging networks in the U.S. Zoi came to EVgo as a distinguished executive with decades of experience in the clean energy, investing and policy communities.
She has held numerous chief executive officer, senior executive and board positions in the energy industry, government, academia and non-profit sectors.
Zoi has served on the board of directors of Soli Organic, an organic food company, since February 2022. She also co-founded Odyssey Energy, a distributed generation software company, and served as its President from June 2016 to November 2017 and as its chairman from November 2017 to July 2022.
She was founding Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Power, a rural electrification company incubated by SunEdison, and served in that position from June 2015 to June 2016.
Prior to that, Zoi was an energy investor at Silver Lake from 2011 to 2013 and Bayard Capital from 2003 to 2006.
She has also served on the board of directors of Ice Energy, SES and Pacific Solar, and was a management consultant at ICF and Next Energy.
She served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary and Acting Under Secretary at the Department of Energy, where she oversaw more than $30 billion in energy investments. Zoi was also the founding Chief Executive Officer of both the Alliance for Climate Protection, established and chaired by U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and the Sustainable Energy Development Authority, a $50 million fund to commercialize clean energy technologies in Australia.
In the early 1990s, Zoi was Chief of Staff for Environmental Policy in the Clinton White House, and she pioneered the Energy Star program while at the EPA.
Zoi was also an adjunct professor and Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford University, where she taught and did research between 2012 and 2017.
Zoi has a B.S. in Geology from Duke University and an M.S. in Engineering from Dartmouth.
181 words by Cathy Zoi
In the news release announcing her departure as CEO of EVgo Inc., Cathy Zoi received accolades, praise, thanks and good wishes.
In announcing her departure, Cathy Zoi spoke at length and said 181 words.
“He is the right person”
Cathy Zoi stated: “Leading EVgo from a 50-person, private enterprise focused on a nascent EV sector, to a leader in charging solutions serving nearly 700,000 customers has been a highlight of my career. I set out to build a strong business yielding robust growth in charger deployments, network utilization, and company revenues, and as a team we have accomplished that. With the focus now being to build on that foundation to further scale EVgo to meet evolving fast charging demand, I believe that it is the right time to implement this leadership transition. I have been fortunate to know and work with Badar in his capacity as Lead Independent Director, and I’ve seen firsthand the breadth of his talents. I believe that Badar’s experience overseeing large, dynamic customer facing energy organizations aligns perfectly with the opportunity ahead of EVgo and that he is the right person to be our next CEO. I am delighted to continue working closely with Badar and my colleagues on the management team to promote a smooth transition. I am excited to see what is yet to come for EVgo.”
Push-out Score for Cathy Zoi’s move determined
The Push-out Score indicates on a scale from 0 to 10 how likely it is that Cathy Zoi was pushed out or felt pressure to leave her position.
exechange reached out to EVgo and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 32.2023 ($).