PPL Corporation announced it has promoted Francis X. Sullivan to executive vice president and chief operating officer effective Jan. 1, 2023. Sullivan succeeds Gregory N. Dudkin, who is on extended medical leave and not expected to return to PPL.

In his new position, Sullivan will report to PPL President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Sorgi and oversee PPL's regulated utility operations, with the presidents of PPL's Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island utility companies reporting to him. Dudkin will remain executive vice president while on medical leave. Sullivan brings more than four decades of energy industry experience to his new role.

He joined PPL as vice president–Operations Performance on Oct. 1, 2021. Prior to PPL, he served as senior operations advisor for Kindle Energy LLC for more than two years and as an independent consultant to the power sector since 2018.

From 2008 to 2018, Sullivan served as NRG Energy's senior vice president of operations and was accountable for one of largest portfolios of generation assets in the U.S. While at NRG, Sullivan was instrumental in driving operational excellence that resulted in a decade of continuous improvement in safety, environmental compliance, generation availability and operational efficiency. Prior to that, he served for more than a decade in a variety of leadership roles with Public Service Enterprise Group. He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Union College and a master's in business administration from Drexel University.