As lawmakers debate future of Santee Cooper, new CEO gets double the previous salary
Mark Bonsall / Source: Santee Cooper
Mark Bonsall / Source: Santee Cooper
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s public utility has hired a new leader and will pay him about twice as much as its last permanent director.
The Santee Cooper Board of Directors voted Tuesday to immediately hire Mark Bonsall as CEO. He comes to South Carolina after retiring as chief executive at Salt River Project, an Arizona utility.
The board agreed to pay Bonsall $1.1 million a year _ about double the salary of previous CEO Lonnie Carter, who stepped down after leading Santee Cooper into billions of dollars of debt with a minority stake in two nuclear reactors that never produced power.
Bonsall was given an 18 month contract to lead the publicly owned utility as lawmakers consider whether to sell it, have an outside company manage it or keep its current structure.
