Brian Harrell

Brian Harrell is Vice President and Chief Security Officer at FirstEnergy Corp., an electric utility holding company, a post FirstEnergy announced on April 9, 2026.

Career path

Harrell's route to FirstEnergy runs through federal homeland-security work. The McCrary Institute's biography states that he was appointed by the president to a senior infrastructure-protection post at the Department of Homeland Security and later held the first version of a top infrastructure-security post at CISA.

The same biography also notes time in the Marine Corps.

FirstEnergy's own announcement adds that, while at CISA, Harrell frequently testified before Congress on countering domestic terrorism and protecting critical infrastructure.

Immediately before FirstEnergy, he ran security for another multistate energy company. FirstEnergy also credits him with enterprise security leadership stints at two other organizations in the power sector.

What the FirstEnergy seat covers

At FirstEnergy, Harrell reports to the chief operating officer and holds a broad security brief spanning both physical and digital risk. The announcement describes the scope of the work as strengthening defenses, expanding intelligence-driven detection, and building security more deeply into how the company plans its business and operations. The announcement also lays out his own framing of the job: "Security only works when it’s understood and practiced at every level of the organization." FirstEnergy credits him with degrees in homeland security and education, a criminal-justice bachelor's degree, and certifications including CISM and CPP.

Taken together, the FirstEnergy announcement and the McCrary Institute biography describe a career that moved from Marine Corps service into federal homeland-security leadership, including a presidentially appointed post and a first-of-its-kind infrastructure-security role at CISA, before crossing into the private sector as a chief security officer at one energy company and now another. Neither source reviewed for this profile states when Harrell left CISA or joined Avangrid, so this profile does not attempt to date those earlier transitions.