Sam Belcher, senior vice president, Operations, recently announced that he is retiring from FirstEnergy after more than a decade with the company. Mark Mroczynski, vice president, Construction & Design Services, has been named acting vice president, Operations, while the company continues in the internal and external search for a replacement.

Although he will miss the people and the daily challenges of the job, Sam is ready to begin the next chapter in his life. “A friend once told me that when it’s time to retire you will know, and I feel like that time has come,” he said. “I’m ready to try different things, check out new places and spend more time with my family.”

Sam leaves behind a solid foundation for FirstEnergy employees to continue building upon. He elevated safety from a priority to a core value, enhanced operational performance, and dedicated his career to eliminating life-changing events for employees.

Sam considers the Leading with Safety program to be his greatest accomplishment while working at the company. The program focuses on the impact leaders can have on employee decision-making by developing and maintaining a culture that helps our workers make the right decisions at the right time.

“As leaders, it’s not just what we say, but what we do that’s important,” explained Sam. “With the Leading with Safety program, we’ve asked our leadership team to demonstrate through their actions and behaviors that safety truly is a core value, and they’ve responded accordingly. A critical part of this effort involves leaders engaging with employees in the field.”

Sam spent most of his career in the utility industry in nuclear generation. He first joined the company in 2005 as director of Fleet Operations for the FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC). He then spent several years with Constellation Energy Nuclear Group before returning to FENOC as senior vice president and chief operating officer in December 2012.

Sam traveled to Louisiana to visit with FirstEnergy employees who were providing mutual assistance following Hurricane Ida in 2021.

When looking back on his time at FirstEnergy, Sam is most proud of the way FENOC employees handled their job assignments when uncertainty surrounded the future of our nuclear fleet. “Our employees stepped up to the plate and focused on what mattered – working safely and efficiently,” he said. “They didn’t let news headlines or other distractions get in the way of operating the plants successfully.”

In March 2018, Sam was named senior vice president and president of FirstEnergy Utilities. He realized this change was going to be a challenge, but he embraced it as a tremendous learning opportunity.

“Moving from Generation – which operates in a competitive environment – to Distribution was a major adjustment,” he recalled. “I quickly realized that I had a lot to learn about how the wires-side of the business operated.”

When asked what the biggest challenge of his professional career was, Sam responded that it was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Most times, when you are faced with an issue, either your company has gone through it before or another company has experienced something similar, and you can learn from their experiences,” he said. “But with COVID-19, there was no playbook for us to follow – we were writing the plays as the situation developed.”

Sam added: “As the pandemic progressed, I tried to be a calming influence for employees by providing open, honest and transparent communications about what was going on, even through what we were experiencing as an organization was really uncharted territory. Overall, I think the company did a good job maintaining employee safety while keeping the lights on for customers.”

Sam rappels down the side of the Akron General Office during the 2018 Over the Edge event to help support the Boy Scouts of America Great Trail Council.

In retirement, Sam said that he is most looking forward to spending more time with his family, including his son, Luke. They share an adventurous spirit and love spending time outdoors.

“Luke and I both enjoy recreational activities like scuba diving and riding dirt bikes,” Sam added. “We also like spending time on the many lakes in our region. You just can’t beat northeast Ohio for outdoor recreation during the summer months.”

Throughout his career, Sam always looked for ways to improve performance – whether it was in safety or keeping nuclear plants operating at the highest level of the industry. He leaves FirstEnergy feeling good about the future of the organization.

“I think we have the right leadership team in place for this moment in the company’s history,” said Sam. “They will keep the company on the right track to be successful.”

Mroczynski Named Acting VP, Operations Mark Mroczynski joined FirstEnergy in 2004 as supervisor of Technical Services for the Bruce Mansfield Plant and advanced to manager of Technical Services for Consolidated Coal Plants in 2006. He was named director, Operations Support, for Ohio Edison and Penn Power in 2008 and became executive director, Transmission Programs, in 2013. He was promoted to his current position in May 2018. Mark received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Akron and a Master of Business Administration from Kent State University. He is a professional engineer in Ohio and Pennsylvania and is a founding director and member of the Association of Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).