NEW ORLEANS – Entergy has announced that Paul Hinnenkamp, executive vice president and chief operating officer, will retire from the company following a nearly 40-year career in the energy industry. His last day will be Aug. 12. As part of a planned leadership succession process, Peter S. Norgeot Jr., currently senior vice president of operations and development, will succeed Hinnenkamp as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
“Paul has been relentless in his pursuit of our vision and mission for more than 20 years,” said Leo Denault, Entergy’s chairman and chief executive officer. “He has successfully led numerous initiatives that have delivered key outcomes and created substantial value for our shareholders. More importantly, Paul has maintained a keen focus on creating a safe environment for our employees, training and developing the next generation of leaders, and setting a standard of operational excellence that has positioned Entergy well for the future. We wish Paul and his wife Joan all the best in this next chapter and thank Paul for ensuring the baton is passed to a leader who is ready and prepared to continue moving Entergy forward on our journey to become the premier utility.”
Hinnenkamp assumed the role of Entergy’s chief operating officer in 2015. Under his leadership, Entergy completed the construction of four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants ahead of schedule and under budget. He improved service reliability for key industrial customers and responded effectively to multiple severe weather events. He also advanced Entergy’s sustainability strategy by supervising the construction of numerous renewable energy facilities across the Entergy region.
In addition to leading Entergy’s safety and human performance, power generation, transmission, system planning, and compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection standards, Hinnenkamp’s role was expanded in recent years to oversee the company’s incident response team, capital projects management and the new power delivery organization.
Pete Norgeot joined Entergy in 2014 and has served as a member of the Office of the Chief Executive since 2018. He has worked closely with Hinnenkamp throughout his career at Entergy. Within the operations organization, he currently oversees teams working to implement strategies to reduce carbon emissions in Entergy’s power generation portfolio and expand environmentally conscious practices while maintaining affordability and reliability for customers. He is also responsible for enterprise safety, training and operational excellence, system planning, non-nuclear power generation, power development, and incident readiness and response.
Since joining Entergy, Norgeot has served in numerous executive leadership roles including vice president of power plant operations – steam division, senior vice president of power generation, and senior vice president of transformation, where he helped stand up the company’s innovation lab and led external affairs, decommissioning activities and plant operations for the company’s merchant nuclear business. Norgeot’s career spans more than 24 years leading generation, commercial management and large-scale development and construction projects in the United States and abroad.
Norgeot has a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and has completed a Senior Executive Program from the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia.
Hinnenkamp joined Entergy in 2001 as vice president of operations support for the company’s utility-owned nuclear plants. He then served as vice president of operations at River Bend Station nuclear power plant. Following other key leadership roles within nuclear operations, including leading nuclear business development, he was named vice president of fossil generation development and support in 2010. That role would grow to comprise capital projects management and technology.
He began his career with the former PECO Energy Company in 1983 and worked on a team responsible for capital projects at various PECO power plants and substations. He moved to the nuclear division where he earned his senior reactor operator’s license at Peach Bottom nuclear power plant.
