Joseph F. Kessler

Joseph F. Kessler, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, oversees NYPA’s power generation and transmission assets, commercial operations and the New York State Canal Corporation’s operations.

Before assuming this role in 2016, Kessler was Senior Vice President of Power Generation, responsible for oversight of NYPA’s generating facilities across New York State. After starting his career at an electrical construction firm designing and building systems, Kessler joined NYPA in 2001 as an engineer in the Electrical Maintenance department.

Kessler is Chairman of NYPA’s Asset Management Board and is a member of NYPA’s Enterprise Risk Management Committee. He also serves as Executive Sponsor of NYPA’s Multicultural Employee Resource Group.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (Energy Systems), and an MBA from SUNY at Buffalo, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York and Maryland.

Kessler is a board member of the Hydropower Research Institute and the Northland Workforce Development Center, has served on the Electric Power Research Institute’s Generation Sector and Research Advisory Councils, and is on the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative Board Working Group and the Large Public Power Council’s Operational Executive Working Group. He is a member of SUNY at Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council.

Kessler is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a member of the Erie-Niagara Chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, the International Association of Electrical Inspectors and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

A lifelong Western New Yorker, Kessler and his wife Lisa live in West Seneca and have three children.

Kessler joined the Dean's Advisory Council in 2016.