Electric utilities
10 NextEra Energy operations leaders
These ten professionals have held director-level or higher operations roles at NextEra Energy and its subsidiaries, including NextEra Energy Resources and Florida Power & Light. A reader can learn how NextEra runs and maintains generation, storage and grid assets and how its operations teams are organized.
Professionals to explore
01—10Brian Vander Velde
LinkedInExperience: Operations Director · NextEra Energy, Inc. - Turkey Point Nuclear Plant
Former Operations Director at NextEra Energy, Inc. - Turkey Point Nuclear Plant (2025–2026), and DAEC Director - Plant Systems Restart at NextEra Energy, Inc. since May 2026, a director-level role according to the profile. At NextEra Energy Resources he was Assistant Operations Manager - Shift (2022–2025), Assistant Operations Manager - Training (2021–2022) and Shift Manager (2015–2021).
Christopher B. Carmona, MBA, P.E.
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director Wind Operations - Mountain Region · NextEra Energy Resources
Senior Director Wind Operations - Mountain Region at NextEra Energy Resources (2023–2025), and Executive Director Wind Operations at NextEra Energy since September 2025, a director-level operations role according to the profile. He was also Senior Director Wind Operations - Heartland Region (2019–2023) and Regional Plant General Manager - Sayreville, Bayswater & Jamaica Bay (2017–2019) at NextEra Energy Resources, and Production Manager - Port Everglades Energy Center at Florida Power & Light (2014–2017).
Gil Makabenta
LinkedInExperience: Director of Operations · NextEra Energy Resources
Director of Operations at NextEra Energy Resources since May 2026, a role the profile describes as general manager of a 5GW portfolio of utility-scale PV and battery storage assets in Southern California and Arizona. His other NextEra Energy Resources roles include Regional Manager I (2022–2026), Regional Manager II (2021–2022) and Solar Site Manager (2019–2021).
Jennifer Chaney
LinkedInExperience: Vice President Operations · NextEra Energy Resources
Vice President Operations at NextEra Energy Resources since September 2025. Her other NextEra Energy Resources roles include Executive Director (2024–2025), Senior Director of Operations (2020–2024), Director - Renewable Asset Managent (2014–2020) and Solar - Early Stage Manager (2009–2011).
Juan Nasiff
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Operations - Solar and Storage - Florida Onboarding and Operational Excellence · NextEra Energy, Inc.
Senior Director of Operations - Solar and Storage - Florida Onboarding and Operational Excellence at NextEra Energy, Inc. since October 2025. He was Senior Director of Operations, ROCC (2022–2026) and General Manager for Renewable Operations Control Center Fleet Performance and Diagnostics Center (2019–2026) at NextEra Energy, Inc., and General Manager Wind Reliability Engineering at NextEra Energy Resources (2008–2015).
Manny Miranda
LinkedInExperience: Executive Vice President, Power Delivery and President, Florida City Gas · NextEra Energy, Inc.
Former Executive Vice President, Power Delivery and President, Florida City Gas at NextEra Energy, Inc. (2013–2024), a role the profile says made him responsible for the planning, engineering, construction, maintenance and operations of the company's transmission, substation and distribution systems. He was also Vice President of Transmission & Substation (2010–2013) and Vice President of Distribution System Performance (2006–2010) at NextEra Energy, Inc.
Mark Lemasney, P.E
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Operations - Wind, Solar & Pipelines · NextEra Energy Resources
Former Vice President of Operations - Wind, Solar & Pipelines at NextEra Energy Resources (2016–2018) and VP of Fossil & Solar Operations there (2016). He has been Executive Vice President of Power Generation at NextEra Energy, Inc. since 2023, and was Vice President of Power Generation Engineering, NextEra Energy (2018–2023) and Nextera Central Maintenance General Manager (2010–2011).
Michael Masaitis
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director Transmission and Substation Operations · NextEra Energy Resources
Sr. Director Transmission and Substation Operations at NextEra Energy Resources since May 2026. At NextEra Energy, Inc. he was Regional General Manager - PV Solar & BESS (2023–2026) and Southcentral Regional General Manager (2023–2025), and at Florida Power & Light he was Site General Manager (2020–2023); the profile describes a background spanning operations, maintenance and executive management.
Segun Ojetayo, P.E.
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director Operations and Construction - Renewable Fuels and Carbon Abatement · NextEra Energy, Inc.
Sr. Director Operations and Construction - Renewable Fuels and Carbon Abatement at NextEra Energy, Inc. since April 2023, where the profile says he is responsible for the renewable fuels (RNG) and carbon abatement operations and project execution team. At NextEra Energy Resources he was Sr. Director Central Maintenance Projects (Renewables) (2022–2023) and Sr. Director, Engineering (Pipeline, RNG, Carbon Abatement) (2019–2022).
Thad Edmonds
LinkedInExperience: Site Vice President - Point Beach · NextEra Energy Resources
Site Vice President - Point Beach at NextEra Energy Resources since June 2025. He was Operations Director St Lucie at Florida Power & Light (2023–2025), General Manager - Fleet Operations at NextEra Energy, Inc. (2024–2025) and Director Of Operations at NextEra Energy Resources (2022–2023); the profile describes a background in commercial nuclear power and as a Navy nuclear operator.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's asset type to your question, since running nuclear plants, wind and solar fleets and transmission systems involves different operating models. Check whether the relevant role is current or former, because operating practices and organization may have changed since an earlier role.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does NextEra organize fleet-wide operations and remote monitoring across wind, solar and storage sites?
- 02Which performance metrics do operations leaders track for plants and sites, and how are they reviewed?
- 03How does NextEra plan maintenance and outages to balance cost, reliability and safety?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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