“After an eight-month national search, the Board selected [Senechal] because of her extensive knowledge and more than 15 years of experience in the electric utility industry,” Board Chairman Wade House said. “The Board also is impressed with her leadership style of prioritizing people first.”
Senechal is the executive vice president of transmission and chief operating officer at Lower Colorado River Authority (LRCA) in Austin, Texas. She joined LRCA in 2017 following nine years at CenterPoint Energy in Houston.
“Like Texas, NOVEC’s service territory is experiencing a number of trends that impact both service and cost of electricity, including increased demand [for] electric vehicles, baseload generation retirements, increasingly complex customer or member demands and an influx of large loads that impact both cost and need for new infrastructure,” Senechal said.
She’ll be moving to Northern Virginia with her fiance and two dogs, to begin with the organization on March 17. Senechal will succeed David E. Schleicher, who is retiring as the president and CEO on April 1; she’ll take over as president and CEO on April 2. Schleicher has been in the role since April 2022 and previously served as the organization’s chief operating officer.
Senechal has a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles; a master’s of business administration from the University of Houston; and a bachelor’s in molecular biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
