PR Newswire | Jul 22, 2021 04:24PM EDT

07/22 15:24 CDT

FirstEnergy Names Soubhagya Parija Vice President and Chief Risk OfficerExtensive industry expertise will help build best-in-class risk program while reinforcing commitment to ethics and compliance AKRON, Ohio, July 22, 2021

AKRON, Ohio, July 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced that Soubhagya Parija has been named vice president and chief risk officer, effective August 16. In this role, he will develop and execute a risk program that reflects FirstEnergy's core values and behaviors; establish standards and implement robust processes and procedures to identify, mitigate, and prevent risks across the company; and support efforts by the Board of Directors and senior leadership to implement, review and approve the company's enterprise-wide risk governance and compliance framework.

Soubhagya will report to Jon Taylor, senior vice president and chief financial officer. Soubhagya joins other new members of FirstEnergy's leadership team who have been added in recent months, including Hyun Park, senior vice president and chief legal officer, Antonio Fernndez, vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer, and Michael Montaque, vice president, internal audit.

"Soubhagya is a respected leader in the risk management field with demonstrated experience building and leading best-in-class enterprise-risk programs at utilities and other key industries," said Steven E. Strah, president and chief executive officer. "His track record of managing risk across large organizations - while embracing an unwavering commitment to integrity and ethical behavior - makes him an excellent addition to our leadership team."

Soubhagya has decades of risk, compliance, and governance experience and is a former board member of the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS), a global risk management organization. From 2015 to earlier this year, he served as senior vice president and chief risk officer at the New York Power Authority, the nation's largest state-owned utility. He was recruited to revamp its risk management organization and streamline reporting to the Board of Trustees, ultimately leading a 20-member risk management team that successfully ran enterprise risk, operational risk, risk analytics and insurance programs.

Previously, Soubhagya served as director, risk strategy for Walmart, where he built and implemented an enterprise-wide regulatory compliance risk management program for the company's international division. He also was director, enterprise risk, at Akron, Ohio-based Signet Jewelers, the world's largest specialty jewelry retailer, where he designed and built an enterprise-risk management program from the ground up. At Duke Energy, he served as director, enterprise risk and portfolio analysis, working his way up after being recruited as a management trainee.

Soubhagya graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India with a master's degree in Economics. He received his Master of Business Administration and Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter: @FirstEnergyCorp.

Editor's Note: A professional photo of Soubhagya Parija is available for download on Flickr.

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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.