This is one profile in a set on the operators that AE Industrial Partners hires as its operating partners, the people a private equity firm pays to guide the companies it owns. The pattern behind who gets the seat is laid out in Built to Be Bought. Mano Nazar earned his by running one of the most safety-critical businesses in the country. He ran a nuclear fleet.
The fleet he ran
Nazar was President and Chief Nuclear Officer of NextEra Energy's Nuclear Division, appointed to that role effective May 30, 2014, a title recorded in Nuclear Regulatory Commission filings. In it he was responsible for the safe operation of the company's eight nuclear reactors, the Florida Power and Light fleet plus NextEra Energy Resources units. He also led what AE Industrial describes as a roughly 4.5 billion dollar expansion, implementing extended power uprates that added more than 700 megawatts of generating capacity to the fleet, per AE Industrial's announcement of his hire. Running eight reactors and adding capacity on that scale is the credential in full.
How he got there
Nazar spent more than 35 years in the utility industry and rose through a sequence of senior nuclear roles. He joined Florida Power and Light as Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer in November 2007, per an SEC filing, and before that he was Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer at American Electric Power, Senior Vice President of nuclear operations at Nuclear Management Company, and site vice president at the Prairie Island plant, with earlier experience at Duke Power, per NRC filings. He holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was named Nuclear Professional of the Year in 2006, and received the World Association of Nuclear Operators Nuclear Excellence Award in 2007, per his AE Industrial bio.
What AeroEquity did with him
AE Industrial named Nazar an Operating Partner effective July 28, 2020, and managing partner Michael Greene said his experience in the broad utility market, especially clean energy, strengthened the firm's power-industry team, per the announcement. He became Chairman of the Board of AE Industrial portfolio company BHI Energy, whose CEO cited a relationship with Nazar going back more than ten years; BHI Energy was later sold to Westinghouse in 2022. He also sat on the board of ENERCON before its 2023 sale to Oaktree Capital Management, per his AE Industrial bio, and he runs his own advisory firm, Mano and Associates Consulting.
The door he walked through
Nazar is the large-operator profile from outside the aerospace and defense core, which is the point. AE Industrial invests in industrial services and power as well as national security, and a person who safely ran a fleet of reactors and delivered a multibillion-dollar capacity expansion is precisely the operator you want steering an industrial or energy portfolio company. He did not found a firm and he did not hold a military command. He ran something enormous and dangerous, and he ran it well.
Related reading
- Built to Be Bought: the full playbook of building a company to be bought and keeping the equity after.
- Marc Duvall and the five-billion-dollar division: another large-operator profile.
- Bill Boisture, who ran Gulfstream, NetJets, and Hawker Beechcraft: the aviation version of the same credential.
- Jim McConville, the Army's top general: the command-side credential on the same bench.
Fact-check notes and sources
- Operating Partner at AE Industrial effective July 28, 2020; the roughly 4.5 billion dollar uprate program that added over 700 megawatts; UNC Charlotte degree: AE Industrial's announcement.
- President and Chief Nuclear Officer of NextEra's Nuclear Division, appointed May 30, 2014, responsible for the eight-reactor fleet: NRC filings. Joining Florida Power and Light in November 2007: an SEC filing. Prior roles at American Electric Power, Nuclear Management Company, Prairie Island, and Duke Power: NRC filings.
- Chairman of BHI Energy (sold to Westinghouse in 2022), board seat at ENERCON (sold to Oaktree in 2023), Mano and Associates Consulting, and the 2006 and 2007 industry awards: his AE Industrial bio. The exact year he stepped down from NextEra and the headcount he managed are not disclosed in the sources found.
This post is informational and journalistic, describing publicly reported people, companies, and transactions. It is not investment, tax, legal, or M&A advice. All parties are discussed from public records and their own published statements as nominative fair use, with no affiliation implied and nothing endorsed by them.
