MELISSA SEIXAS
PRESIDENT, DUKE ENERGY FLORIDA, ST. PETERSBURG
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, is a regulated utility serving approximately 1.9 million customers in 35 counties in a 13,000-square-mile service area. The company, which employs 3,800, has more than 900 megawatts of solar generation under construction and will be deploying 50 megawatts of battery storage. Seixas has been with the company for 34 years and was named president in 2021 after serving as vice president of government and community relations. She started at Duke’s St. Pete ops center in the engineering department. “My job was to hand-draw the poles and wires that you currently see along the streets of St. Petersburg. That’s pretty much how I started with the company.”
| EDUCATION | Eckerd College (BA), University of South Florida (MA) |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | My father was a colonel, and my mother came to the United States when she was only 19. She didn’t speak English so she learned the language through watching television and listening to music. |
| READING | Last year I had committed to reading 100 books, and I made it to 74. I’m currently reading Joan Didion’s Let Me Tell You What I Mean; The Wilder Heart of Florida, edited by Jack E. Davis and Leslie K. Poole; a biography on Billie Holiday; and another on Coco Chanel. |