In early 2024, Vickie Cavey returned to JEA for the second time since she retired in 2016 after 32 years climbing steadily through the ranks.
This time, she would ascend all the way to the top of the city-owned utility, and make history in September when she was named JEA’s first woman CEO and managing director.
Cavey, who began her career at JEA when she was hired as a mechanical engineer in 1984, first came out of retirement to assist the utility in 2020 and 2021 during the tumultuous time after former CEO Aaron Zahn resigned amid criminal accusations.
Her second return from retirement started in March 2024, when the JEA board hired her as a liaison between it and then-CEO Jay Stowe’s administration.
A month later, Stowe resigned over what board Chair Joe DiSalvo called philosophical disagreements with the board over how to move the utility forward. In the same meeting in which the board accepted Stowe’s resignation, it named Cavey as interim CEO.
Five months into her term as interim, the board opted to waive a national search for a long-term CEO and install Cavey as the top executive in the organization.
Board members cited Cavey’s decades of experience at JEA in their decision, with DiSalvo saying community members had told him the utility needed “homegrown talent” after hiring its previous two CEOs — Zahn and Stowe — from outside.
Board member John Baker lauded Cavey for showing “incredible leadership” as interim, saying she had “made significant changes that most interims would not have touched.”
Among the changes under Cavey’s interim leadership, JEA rolled back Stowe-era policies on remote work.
Two board members voted against foregoing the national search, saying the position should have been opened to other candidates.
When she was named to the interim spot, Cavey spoke with pride about her history with the utility. She said she was wearing the business suit she wore to her first day at work at JEA — a gift her mother purchased for her at the former 5-7-9 clothing store in Jacksonville.
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