JACOB WILLIAMS
GENERAL MANAGER & CEO, FLORIDA MUNICIPAL POWER AGENCY, ORLANDO
While in college, Williams says he realized that he aspired to be more than an engineer and wanted to “apply my engineering and problem-solving skills to business and commercial opportunities.” He has led the organization since 2016. The FMPA is a wholesale power agency owned by 31 municipal electric utilities in Florida that serves some 2 million consumers, many with lower-than-average household incomes.
| EDUCATION | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BS), University of Wisconsin-Madison (MBA) |
| ACCOMPLISHMENT | FMPA’s average power costs to its members in 2020 were the lowest in 16 years. FMPA’s retail customers, Williams says, paid an average of about 7% less for electricity during the height of the pandemic. |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | Cyd Charisse had just won the 800-meter race at the Kansas relays in 40-degree weather and a sudden downpour, and she was standing alone in the middle of the stadium. I came out to congratulate her, and she was so cold that her hands were frozen. She could not pull her clothes up over her singlet, so I helped her get dressed in the middle of the field. She thanked me and then ran off to take a chemistry exam. I did not see her again for several months, but we eventually connected and have been married for nearly 33 years. |
| NEW HOBBY | After years of running, my wife and I now ride bicycles as “date mornings.” |