Entergy Corporation Appoints New Leaders

News provided by

Jul 07, 2010, 01:21 ET

NEW ORLEANS, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Following Entergy Corporation's (NYSE: ETR) major reorganization announced last month by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer J. Wayne Leonard, Leo Denault, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Richard Smith, president, Entergy wholesale commodities business; and Rod West, executive vice president and chief administrative officer have named new leaders within their respective organizations effective immediately.

New leadership appointments include:

Michele Lopiccolo, formerly vice president, investor relations, has been named vice president, planning and financial communications and will continue reporting to Denault.
Paula Waters, formerly director, investor relations, will succeed Lopiccolo as vice president, investor relations and report to Lopiccolo.
Barrett Green and Mike Twomey join Entergy's wholesale commodities business reporting directly to Smith.
- Green has been named vice president, finance and risk, having most recently served as vice president, chief risk officer designate for Enexus Energy Corporation.
- Twomey has been named vice president, external affairs – wholesale. He previously served as vice president, utility strategy.
Kimberly Despeaux has been named senior vice president, federal policy, regulatory and governmental affairs. She previously served as vice president and associate general counsel – federal regulation and policy. Despeaux will report to West.

These appointments provide further development of proven leaders.

Lopiccolo will lead the integration of strategic planning, corporate planning, investor relations and the investment approval process to ensure consistent, high quality information is presented to senior management, Entergy's board and Entergy's investors – all of whom rely upon that information for decision making purposes. Lopiccolo joined Entergy in 1989, having most recently served as vice president, investor relations, and before that vice president, corporate planning and performance. Previous positions were held in a variety of roles in the finance and accounting organizations. Lopiccolo is a graduate of Louisiana State University, obtained her master of business administration from Tulane University, and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor Technology Program for Utility Executives. She is a certified public accountant.

Waters will serve as the primary interface with Wall Street analysts and investors, and she will be responsible for formulating press releases, presentations and other financial disclosures to assist investors in their assessments of Entergy's future prospects. In addition, Waters will provide feedback to senior management and the board on analysts' perspectives of Entergy relative to its peers. Waters joined Entergy in 1994. She has held positions in investor relations, strategic planning and financial communications in the finance organization for the past seven years. Prior to that, she held various positions conducting financial analysis and project finance supporting Entergy's non-nuclear wholesale business development pursuits. Waters received a master of business administration from Tulane University and a bachelor's degree from Missouri State University. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Green is charged with enabling greater integration and accountability of the finance and risk functions for Entergy's wholesale commodities business. He will have responsibility for streamlining and consolidating mid- and back-office functions into a single group, including assessment and communication of market and counterparty credit risk, financial planning, and settlement and reporting processes. Centralization of accountability for these key financial and risk functions will enable non-utility operations to more effectively plan, manage and report its financial position, as well as actively manage risks, service its merchant contracts and meet necessary regulatory, financial and commercial reporting requirements with improved focus also intended to lower the business risk profile. Green joined Entergy in 1997 and has held a variety of positions, most recently serving as chief risk officer designate for Enexus. Prior to that he led the commercial analytics function responsible for developing and maintaining the company's point of view on commodity, economic, technology, environmental and regulatory trends that have the potential to impact Entergy's existing businesses and future investments. Other Entergy experience includes overseeing the sale of the Entergy-Koch, LP assets, directing the company's investment approval process, directing the corporate planning and performance department and actively participating in nuclear business development. Green received a master of business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a master in engineering from Virginia Tech, and his undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Mississippi.

Twomey, a Norwich, Conn., native, will bring a heightened and unified focus to state governmental and regulatory affairs for the new wholesale commodities organization. As the non-utility nuclear assets move through the various phases of the nuclear license renewal process, a dedicated Northeast governmental and regulatory affairs group within the wholesale organization will increase focus on this critical aspect of the business. This group will have an increased presence in these states and will serve to strengthen the company's relationships with state regulatory stakeholders associated with the non-utility nuclear generation assets. Twomey began his career at Entergy in 2002 as assistant general counsel – regulatory for Entergy Services, Inc. working on regulatory matters pending at the Louisiana Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In 2004, he was named vice president of regulatory affairs for Louisiana's utility companies and became vice president, utility strategy in 2009. Prior to joining Entergy, Twomey was senior regulatory counsel for BellSouth in Atlanta with responsibility for various regulatory matters before the state public service commissions in BellSouth's nine-state region. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Tulane University and a law degree, with honors, from the University of Connecticut.

Despeaux takes the helm of Entergy's federal policy and governmental affairs organization and will be responsible for developing policies and implementing legislative, regulatory and executive branch strategies at the federal level. Her new role will encompass policy affecting transmission and regional transmission organizations, wholesale / competitive markets, the Entergy System Agreement, climate change, FERC regulation and policy, other federal initiatives regarding electricity and North American Electric Reliability Corporation policy. Despeaux joined Entergy in 1985. She most recently served as vice president, associate general counsel – federal regulation and policy and before that as director, federal regulatory affairs. Previous positions were held in a variety of roles in the legal and federal governmental affairs organizations. Despeaux is a graduate of University of North Dakota and obtained her law degree from Tulane University.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and more than 15,000 employees.

Additional investor information can be accessed online at

www.entergy.com/investor_relations.

In this news release, and from time to time, Entergy Corporation makes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, Entergy undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including (a) those factors discussed in (i) Entergy's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, (ii) Entergy's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, and (iii) Entergy's other reports and filings made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, (b) uncertainties associated with rate proceedings, formula rate plans and other cost recovery mechanisms, (c) uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of major storms and recover related restoration costs, (d) nuclear operating and regulatory risks, and (e) legislative and regulatory actions, and conditions in commodity and capital markets during the periods covered by the forward-looking statements, in addition to other factors described elsewhere in this release and in subsequent securities filings.

SOURCE Entergy Corporation