TXNM Energy Inc. is preparing for a leadership change as CEO Pat Collawn will become executive chair July 1 and Don Tarry, the utility’s president and COO taking on the CEO title.
“Pat’s remarkable leadership has advanced our utilities, our teams, our communities and the industry as we navigated a changing energy environment," Norm Becker, the lead independent director of TXNM’s board, said in a statement. “The board of directors extends our heartfelt appreciation for Pat’s steady and thoughtful approach, and we value her continued board guidance.”
Collawn, 66, joined TXNM—the parent company of PNM in New Mexico and TNMP in Texas—in the middle of 2007 as utilities president after leading Xcel Energy Inc.’s Public Service Co. of Colorado. She was promoted to president and COO of the holding company a year later and named president and CEO in 2012. Over the past decade, the company has grown to about $2 billion in revenues compared to about $1.4 billion in 2014; it now serves about 834,000 customers.
Word of Collawn’s planned move into the executive chair seat comes just a few days after Bloomberg reported that private-equity giant Blackstone Inc. is in talks to buy TXNM. The news service noted that the deal could still not materialize; a plan for TXNM (then still called PNM Resources Inc.) to sell itself to Avangrid Inc. fell apart around the beginning of 2024 over concerns from New Mexico regulators about a proposed benefits agreement.
Shares of TXNM (Ticker: TXNM) initially fell May 14 on the news of Collawn’s plans but recovered during the day. During the afternoon of May 15, there were changing hands around $53.40. Over the past six months, they have risen 15%, a move that has grown the company’s market capitalization to about $4.9 billion.
