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Just weeks after billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn secured two seats on the board of American Electric Power<\/a> Co., the utility fired its chief executive officer whose tenure lasted less than 14 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Julie Sloat, who\u00a0became<\/a>\u00a0CEO in January 2023, will be replaced on an interim basis by Benjamin G.S. Fowke III, a member of the company\u2019s board and the former chairman and CEO of Xcel Energy<\/a> Inc., AEP said Monday. Sloat was among the few women at the head of a major US utility.\u00a0<\/p>\n AEP in its statement said it was time to identify a new person to lead its next chapter and that the board would conduct an external search for a permanent CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks like the board was impatient for changes,\u201d said Paul Patterson<\/a>, a utility analyst for Glenrock Associates LLC. \u201cThey wanted a change and this is part of it.\u201d He added that it wasn\u2019t clear to him why the board got rid of Sloat, who in his eyes hadn\u2019t made any major missteps.<\/p>\n AEP shares were up almost 3% in after-hours trading in New York. The company also reported earnings Monday after the market closed, with revenue that trailed analyst estimates. The company will hold a call with analysts on Tuesday to discuss the quarterly results.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CEO move comes after AEP said this month that Hunter Gary, an Icahn Enterprises<\/a> senior managing director, and Henry Linginfelter, a former executive at Southern Company Gas, will join the board.<\/p>\n Some analysts had brought up the possibility of leadership change when Icahn\u2019s involvement in AEP first came to light.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect Icahn to look for ways to generate multiple accretion, spanning partial asset sales, potential management changes, to perhaps even a sale of the company in its entirety,\u201d analysts at Guggenheim Securities wrote in a research note on Feb. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to a question about whether the CEO change was related to the Icahn agreement on the board, AEP said: \u201cThe full board made the determination that now is the right time to identify a new CEO to lead the company.\u201d<\/p>\n Icahn\u2019s involvement with AEP is his most recent foray into American utilities. He has also been involved with FirstEnergy<\/a> Corp., which was embroiled in a federal corruption case involving nuclear subsidies. Southwest Gas Holdings<\/a> Inc. agreed in 2022 to sell a pipeline business for $1.5 billion including debt and spin off its construction business in the wake of a bitter battle with Icahn.<\/p>\n Ohio-headquartered AEP has about 5.6 million customers in 11 states. The company had faced regulator pushback during Sloat\u2019s time in the top role, including the rejection of a $1.5 billion sale of its Kentucky operations and a rejection in Texas of its plan to spend $2.2 billion on green energy assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n