PPL Corp. announced the elimination of its chief operating officer role effective April 4, at which time current Executive Vice President and COO Francis X. Sullivan will retire.

Also effective April 4, Sullivan’s responsibilities will be assumed by David J. Bonenberger, who will become executive vice president and chief operating officer — utilities; and Lonnie Bellar, who will become executive vice president of engineering, construction and generation. Both executives will report to PPL President and CEO Vincent Sorgi.

“On behalf of our board of directors and the entire leadership team at PPL, I thank Fran for his tremendous leadership and transformation of our operations and safety functions over the past two years,” Sorgi said. “Fran’s leadership has been invaluable in the design and execution of our utility of the future and OnePPL strategies.”

Bonenberger and Bellar both currently report to Sullivan. Bonenberger is responsible for utility operations and customer service across all of PPL’s utilities in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Virginia. Bellar is responsible for enterprisewide engineering and construction services, energy supply and analysis, and environmental compliance.

With the elimination of the enterprisewide COO role, Bellar will also assume responsibility over PPL’s Kentucky generation fleet.

Both Bonenberger and Bellar began their energy careers in the 1980s — Bonenberger joining PPL Electric Utilities in 1984 and Bellar joining Kentucky Utilities in 1987.

Before their most recent roles, Bonenberger served as president of Rhode Island Energy, a subsidiary of PPL, and Bellar served as COO for LG&E and KU Energy, also a subsidiary of PPL.

Sullivan has served as PPL’s executive vice president and COO since January 2023.

Before joining PPL in October 2021, Sullivan served as a senior operations adviser and independent consultant for the power sector and spent more than 40 years in a variety of leadership roles with some of the biggest names in the energy industry, including NRG Energy and Public Service Enterprises Group.

Headquartered in Allentown, PPL is a leading energy company focused on providing electricity and natural gas safely, reliably and affordably to more than 3.5 million customers in the United States.