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Peco's new CEO is a utility lifer with a Villanova MBA

Craig Adams, a soft-spoken Kentucky native perhaps best known as the utility's persona in its public-television arts sponsorship messages, will be succeed by a 30-year Peco veteran.

Peco Chief Executive Craig Adams, right, speaks to Arnaldo Maldonado, a gas distribution mechanic, at a 2016 event in in Wayne. Peco announced Adam’s retirement on Thursday.
Peco Chief Executive Craig Adams, right, speaks to Arnaldo Maldonado, a gas distribution mechanic, at a 2016 event in in Wayne. Peco announced Adam’s retirement on Thursday.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer

Craig Adams, 65, Peco's president and chief executive since 2012, will retire March 30 and be succeeded by Mike Innocenzo, senior vice president and chief operating officer, the Philadelphia utility announced Thursday.

Adams, a soft-spoken Kentucky native perhaps best known as Peco's persona in its public-television arts sponsorship messages, oversaw the company's advanced grid and meter infrastructure project, one of its most significant investments in history.

Adams also championed diversity in a company that he acknowledged was dominated historically by a culture of white, male engineers. "It's our job to make the organization look more like the customers we serve," he said in a 2013 interview.

Innocenzo, 52, has steadily moved up the ladder in 30 years in a variety of roles at Peco, which serves Southeastern Pennsylvania and is the state's largest utility.

Innocenzo will also assume Adams' role as an executive vice president of Exelon Corp., Peco's parent company.

Innocenzo holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Widener University and an MBA from Villanova University.