John D. Hewa

John D. Hewa is REC’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Hewa has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the electric utility industry. Hewa has served as the CEO of electric cooperatives in Texas and Florida and as vice president of research, engineering, and technical services at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Arlington, Virginia. At NRECA, Hewa and his teams worked to advance the adoption of beneficial smart grid technologies among the nation’s electric cooperatives focusing on reliable, resilient and clean and distributed energy tech adoption.Hewa serves as chair of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Energy Storage Association and served from 2013-2020 on the Board of Directors of the Smart Electric Power Alliance. Hewa is a director on the Board of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Hewa holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and a master of science in engineering management from the University of Tennessee. He also earned his Doctor of Engineering at George Washington University focusing on engineering management, researching and modeling energy storage for electric cooperatives in the PJM structured wholesale electricity market.