21. Michael Hervey

Long Islanders have a love/hate relationship with the Long Island Power Authority, meaning we love to hate it. The job of top dog at LIPA has been highly politicized since its inception and entirely thankless, especially when a storm blows through. The current almost-chief of the embattled authority, Michael Hervey, lacks the connections of immediate past-president Kevin Law, or the media savvy of the larger-than-life Richie Kessel before that. In fact, Hervey possesses almost none of the qualities of his predecessors in that he actually trained for the job at hand. An electrical engineer by trade, Hervey has worked at LIPA since 2000 and enjoys deep support from his colleagues. Although Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to officially appoint Hervey to the top spot, there’s little doubt as to whether or not he’s in charge.