New Era Energy & Digital Appoints Charlie Nelson as CEO Amid Leadership Shake-up

New Era Energy & Digital (NASDAQ:NUAI) has announced a significant leadership transition, appointing Charlie Nelson as its new chairman and chief executive officer, effective July 1, 2026. Nelson, previously the company's president and chief operating officer, will steer the data center developer into its next phase of growth.

The leadership changes include E. Will Gray II stepping down from the board to focus on Permian Basin development as president of the region. Ted Warner has been named president and chief financial officer, expanding his responsibilities to include broader strategic duties. José Rodriguez, with prior experience at Microsoft, TikTok, and Amazon Web Services, joins as chief operating officer. Darin Rovell will serve as chief accounting officer.

Nelson highlighted the company's priorities, including data center delivery, power development, commercial partnerships, and capital formation. He expressed confidence that the new team will advance the Texas Critical Data Centers project and build New Era into a more substantial digital infrastructure platform. The company is developing large-scale data centers in energy-rich U.S. markets to support AI workloads, with its flagship Texas Critical Data Centers project aiming for 1.4 gigawatts of capacity.