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Ed Bielarski
Gainesville Regional Utilities
Chief Executive Officer
Ed Bielarski returned to the Gainesville Regional Utilities, when, in June 2024, he was rehired by the Governor-appointed Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority – becoming Ed 2.0. Ed 1.0 served GRU as its General Manager from 2015 to 2022, when he worked for the Gainesville City Commission. <br /><br />In 2017, Ed 1.0 negotiated the utility out from under $2.5 billion in financial obligations of a controversial, above-market contract with Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, often referred to as the biomass PPA, saving the utility more than $1 billion and reducing customer bills by 8 to 10 percent. The effort won GRU a nomination as the Deal of the Year by The Bond Buyer. <br /><br />Between 2022 and 2024, during his sabbatical from GRU, Bielarski wrote the book, The City that Lost Control, the true story of how greed, deception, politics, and a battle over green energy shattered a community. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Gainesville. <br /><br />Prior to his career at GRU, Bielarski was the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Lehigh County Authority in Allentown, Pennsylvania. While there, he shepherded a first-of-its kind 50-year concession agreement with the City of Allentown in which the region’s disparate water systems were consolidated under a common operating entity. It was awarded Deal of the Year in the Northeast by The Bond Buyer. <br /><br />For almost 20 years prior to joining The Lehigh County Authority, Bielarski served as the general manager of Panther Creek Partners, managing a waste-coal-fired power plant under a 20-year PPA with Metropolitan Edison. <br /><br />Bielarski was a CPA in his early years after graduating from Loyola College and Saint Joesph’s University, with his undergraduate and graduate degrees, respectively. <br /><br />Bielarski is married with two boys and two grandchildren and lives in Gainesville.
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