Leadership Team

Mark Jacobs is president and chief executive officer of Reliant Energy, Inc. Previously he served as Reliant’s chief financial officer from July 2002 through May 2007. Prior to joining Reliant in 2002, Jacobs had a long-standing advisory relationship with the company in his position as managing director with Goldman, Sachs and Co. Jacobs joined Goldman Sachs in 1989 in mergers and acquisitions in New York. He moved to the energy and power group in 1997 and relocated to Houston in 1998.

Jacobs serves on the boards of the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Greater Houston Partnership. He is also a member of the executive board of KIPP, Inc., a network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States.

He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree in management from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Brian Landrum is executive vice president and chief operating officer for Reliant Energy. He is responsible for the company’s four operational functions, which include retail marketing, ERCOT supply, plant operations and commercial operations.

Landrum joined Reliant in November 1999. He has held positions of increasing responsibility including senior vice president, retail operations, followed by president, Reliant Energy Retail Services, and senior vice president, commercial and retail operations and information technology.

Before joining Reliant, Landrum worked for Compaq Computer Corporation. During that time, he held the position of general manager of the worldwide commercial displays business unit. Prior to his service at Compaq, Landrum spent 10 years in general management and information technology consulting with McKinsey & Company and Accenture in the United States, Mexico and Europe.

Landrum currently serves on the board of directors of both Central Houston and Rebuilding Together Houston.

Landrum earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University and received his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago. 

Rick Dobson is executive vice president, chief financial officer of Reliant Energy, Inc. He oversees the operation of the finance, accounting, investor relations, performance management, internal audit and information technology functions of the company. He also is responsible for leading the financial aspects of the strategic plan and creating the infrastructure to support Reliant’s disciplined approach to capital investment.

Prior to joining Reliant, he served as CFO of the aluminum products company Novelis, Inc. Earlier in his career, he held the position of chief financial officer at Aquila, Inc., an electric and natural gas utility company based in Kansas City, Mo.

Dobson earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin and completed a Master of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska. He maintains his license to practice as a CPA in Texas. 

David Brast is senior vice president, commercial operations and origination, for Reliant Energy. In addition to overseeing execution of the wholesale commercial operations and origination strategy, he works closely with plant operations leadership to achieve the financial and operational goals of the wholesale business.

In his former position at Reliant, he was responsible for economic dispatch, fuel procurement and commercialization of the West and Southeast generation assets. In addition, he has directed wholesale origination and optimization of Reliant’s gas transportation and storage assets. In 1999, he led the commercial operations development for the acquired Dutch generator UNA N.V. and established Reliant’s energy trading capabilities across continental Europe and the U.K.

Prior to joining Reliant in 1997, David held a variety of positions with Enron Capital and Trade Resources, Inc.

He earned a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Texas A&M University.

Jason Few is senior vice president of Mass Markets and Operations at Reliant Energy, Inc. He is responsible for leading residential and small business marketing and operations efforts across the retail business, as well as developing new smart energy products. Few joined the company in July 2008.

He comes to Reliant Energy from Motorola, Inc., where he most recently served as corporate vice president and general manager of Companion Products. Few previously oversaw Motorola’s global retail and distribution, global quality and customer advocacy, as well as marketing of the North American mobile devices business. Prior to joining Motorola, he led SBC Communications’ activities in Wi-Fi implementation, broadband marketing, eBusiness development and the SBC Yahoo integration and business development activities.

Few’s successful track record bringing new technologies to market is ideal for implementing smart energy programs to help consumers use less electricity, spend less money and reduce their impact on the environment.

Few serves on the board of directors of Syniverse Holdings, Inc. and the board of trustees of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.  He earned a bachelor's degree in computer systems from Ohio University and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Dave Freysinger is senior vice president, generation operations for Reliant Energy, Inc. He is responsible for the company’s plants and their operations, maintenance, technical, environmental and safety, and purchasing activities. He is also responsible for engineering and construction activities associated with new plant developments and major projects.

Freysinger joined Reliant in April 2001 as director, corporate planning and development, and worked on a series of plant operations improvement projects. He was named vice president, PJM/ECAR markets in 2002 within Reliant Energy’s wholesale group. In 2002, he was appointed chief operating officer for Reliant Energy Europe where he was responsible for Reliant’s operational, commercial, political, regulatory and financial activities in The Netherlands. He managed these operations through their eventual sale to a third party in late 2003.

Prior to joining Reliant, Freysinger worked in the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry. He spent 14 years with Amoco Corporation in a variety of financial, strategy and business unit roles. Freysinger also spent two years with a start-up oil and gas services firm.

Freysinger received a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics from Dickinson College and a Master of Business Administration in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago. He has received various academic and athletic awards.

Charles Griffey is senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Reliant Energy, Inc.  His responsibilities include developing strategies and implementing policies for competition in the electric industry at the state and federal levels and in both regulatory and legislative venues.  The regulatory department works closely with Reliant’s business units to ensure that the company is providing the benefits of competition to consumers.

He led Reliant’s involvement in the restructuring of the Texas market, and during his tenure at Reliant and its predecessor companies, Griffey has also been responsible for financial planning, resource planning and rates development.  

He has a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and a master’s in business and public management, both from Rice University. Griffey is a chartered financial analyst and a professional engineer. 

Rogers Herndon is senior vice president of strategic planning and business development.

He is responsible for planning Reliant’s business strategy and developing business initiatives to meet strategic goals.  

Since joining the company in May 2006, Herndon has contributed by refining commercial strategy to align with Reliant’s disciplined approach to capital investment and in realizing the full value of our assets throughout the business cycle.

He joined Reliant in 2006 as senior vice president of commercial operations and origination. Prior to joining Reliant, Herndon directed the unregulated commercial activities for PSEG Energy Resources and Trade. He had previously been responsible for Bank of America's entry into global electricity markets. Herndon also managed retail supply, natural gas and power trading activities while at Enron and Dynegy.

Herndon received his bachelor's degree in economics from Washington and Lee University and his Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business with a major in finance.

Mike Jines has served as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Reliant Energy, Inc. since May 2003. He was deputy general counsel and senior vice president and general counsel, wholesale group, from March 2002 to May 2003.

Previously, Mike served as deputy general counsel of CenterPoint and senior vice president and general counsel of its wholesale group from 1999 until the company’s separation.

Mike is a former member of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas and a sustaining life fellow in the Houston Bar Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and has co-chaired the United Way’s Law Firm Initiative since 2006.

Mike earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston College of Law where he served as an editor on the Houston Law Review. He is admitted to practice in the state of Texas.

Suzie Kupiec is senior vice president and chief risk and compliance officer of Reliant Energy, Inc. She is responsible for the company’s deal structuring, risk management, credit, pricing within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), market fundamentals and insurance.

Kupiec joined Reliant in June 2003 as vice president and chief risk and corporate compliance officer. Previously, she was a partner at Ernst & Young, LLP leading the firm’s energy trading and risk management practice. She joined Ernst & Young in 1989 and served both audit and advisory services clients, including Reliant. Kupiec was a firm specialist in the use of financial instruments and complex derivatives for the energy industry.

Kupiec is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in both finance and accounting. She is a member of the Texas State Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Tom Livengood is responsible for all Reliant Energy accounting and tax functions.

Previously, Livengood served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Carriage Services, Inc. and as vice president and chief financial officer of Tenneco Energy.  He began his career with KPMG and Texas Oil & Gas Corp.

He serves on the board of trustees of the Good Samaritan Foundation and is a committee chair for Financial Executives International.

He is a certified public accountant and received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Albert Myres is responsible for government and public affairs for Reliant Energy.

Previously, Myres served as senior advisor and chief of staff to the president and country chairman of Shell Oil Corporation. His career with Shell spanned 11 years, where he served in several other senior level positions. Prior to joining Shell, he served as director for the Texas office for United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Involved with many Houston-area organizations, he serves on the Board of Directors for the YMCA, Interfaith Ministries and the Texas Nature Conservancy, where he is chairman of the Policy Committee.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he was appointed by the mayor of Houston to serve as president of the Katrina/Rita Fund. The fund is a multi-million dollar charity created to provide financial assistance to organizations servicing the numerous needs of families who relocated to Houston.

Myres created and implemented the Katrina/Rita Education Initiative, a five million-dollar project to provide immediate intervention to children academically behind in reading and math.

He earned a bachelor’s of science degree in finance from the University of Tulsa.

David Roylance is senior vice president of Reliant Energy’s Commercial and Industrial Sales and Marketing. In this role, Roylance and his team are responsible for the profitable expansion and management of all Reliant business customers in the United States. 

Roylance joined Reliant in 1998 as director of Natural Gas Trading and Marketing in the western United States. In 1999, he joined Reliant Europe where he was responsible for establishing a wholesale origination and marketing presence in the rapidly developing European market. In 2001 he returned from Europe to lead Reliant’s retail commercial and industrial activities in the ERCOT market. Roylance came to Reliant from ConocoPhillips where he held exploration, production, planning and natural gas trading assignments in domestic and international markets.  

Roylance serves on the board of Children at Risk, a research-based advocacy group dedicated to children’s issues.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from the College of Business Administration, University of North Texas in Denton.

Karen Taylor is senior vice president, human resources and chief diversity officer for Reliant Energy, Inc. She is responsible for all human resource and administrative functions company-wide.

Taylor has served Reliant or its predecessor companies since 1985, having joined the company with the acquisition of NorAm Energy Corp. in 1997. She has held a variety of senior management positions in planning, finance and human resources. Before she was named senior vice president in late 2003, she was vice president of human resources with responsibility for Reliant’s wholesale operations and corporate services. Previously, she served as vice president of administration for the Reliant Energy wholesale group; vice president of planning and procurement for the former Reliant Energy trading and transportation group; and vice president of finance for the former Arkla pipeline group, whose operations are now part of CenterPoint Energy. She began her career in 1979 with the accounting firm then known as Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.

Taylor holds a Master of Professional Accountancy from Louisiana Tech University and is a certified public accountant. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.