New Era Energy & Digital (NASDAQ:NUAI) has appointed Charles “Charlie” Nelson as president and chief operating officer, tapping a longtime board member to help steer the company from development into execution and growth.
Nelson has served since December 2024. He transitioned from independent director to executive director in July 2025 and has played a key role in New Era’s corporate transformation toward digital infrastructure, the company said.
New Era, which develops and operates digital infrastructure and integrated power assets in the Permian Basin, said Nelson brings experience in developing, funding, building and operating large-scale infrastructure platforms, including pipelines, gas processing, power, terminals, fuels and chemicals, as well as scaling hard technology across multiple sectors.
“I am thrilled and honored to be joining at such a crucial moment in the company’s evolution,” Nelson said in a statement, adding that New Era is shifting from a development phase into execution and growth with a focus on building cash-flowing assets.
New Era CEO E Will Gray II said Nelson’s experience across data center and infrastructure development makes him “uniquely qualified” to lead the company alongside him as it advances its power-first data center strategy.
In connection with Nelson’s appointment, New Era’s board approved equity compensation awards as inducement for his acceptance of employment. The awards include time-vesting restricted stock units covering 1.22 million shares and performance-vesting restricted stock units covering 3.66 million shares of common stock.
The restricted stock units vest monthly over four years, subject to continued employment. The performance-based units vest upon the achievement of specified milestones through December 2030, including entering a binding commercial agreement with a hyperscaler, reaching financial close on a data center campus producing 200 megawatts, and commencing operations of a fully leased data center campus with at least $100 million in annual target revenue, alongside a stock price performance condition.