NRG Energy, Inc. announced that Lawrence Coben, Ph.D., Chair of the NRG Board of Directors, has been appointed Interim President and Chief Executive Officer and that Mauricio Gutierrez, NRG?s President and Chief Executive Officer, has departed the Company and resigned from the Board. The NRG Board has initiated a search to identify a permanent CEO and retained a leading search firm to assist with this process. NRG director Anne Schaumburg has also been appointed Lead Independent Director.

Dr. Coben has served as Chair of the NRG Board of Directors since 2017 and has been a member of the Board since 2003. From 2003 to 2017, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of various affiliates of Tremisis Energy. Dr. Coben also served on the Board of Directors of SAESA, a Chilean utility, from 2008 to 2010, the Board of Prisma Energy from 2003 to 2006, and the advisory board of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure II, L.P. from 2014 to 2016.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Freshpet, Inc. Dr. Coben is also the Executive Director of the ESCALA Initiative, a leading NGO that provides a Business School and Capacity Training Program to marginalized women entrepreneurs around the world. Dr. Coben received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Yale University, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in anthropology with a focus in archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania.