Leadership
Charles Rice - President & CEO, Entergy New Orleans, Inc.
Charles Rice became president and chief executive officer of Entergy New
Orleans, Inc., a $750 million a year electric and gas utility, on June 14,
2010.
Taking over the electric utility that has been in a growth mode with more than
75 percent, or 150,000, of its customers returning home since Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, Rice is responsible for the company’s financial and
operational performance, customer service, regulatory and governmental
relations, economic development programs, external and internal
communications, charitable contributions and environmental policy. At the core
of his operational responsibilities is management of the company’s electric
and gas distribution systems to customers.
After his first legal private practice position in Louisiana with Jones,
Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P, Rice joined Entergy in
the legal department in 2000 serving as senior counsel in the Entergy Service,
Inc. litigation group and then as manager of labor relations litigation
support in human resources.
Rice was recruited into New Orleans city government in 2002 as the city
attorney and later took the critical role of chief administrative officer for
the City of New Orleans, where he managed 6,000 employees and the city’s $600
million budget. In 2005, the law firm of Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman &
Sarver, L.L.C. recruited him back to private practice, where he was named
partner.
Returning to Entergy in 2009, Rice served as director of utility strategy
where he was responsible for coordinating regulatory, legislative, and
communications efforts to develop and execute strategies that advanced
commercial objectives for the company’s regulated service areas. He then
served as director of regulatory affairs for Entergy New Orleans where he
helped marshal the company’s second electric rate decrease in two years, a
feat that no investor-owned utility in the nation has accomplished in recent
years.
Rice graduated Howard University with a bachelor’s degree in business
administration and earned his juris doctorate from Loyola University’s School
of Law. After graduating from Howard University, he was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the United States Army and served as a military
intelligence officer with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort
Campbell, Ky. While in the Army, he earned the Airborne Badge, Air Assault
badge and was awarded the Army Commendation and the Army Achievement medals.
He is a member of the Alabama and Louisiana State Bar Associations, the
American Bar Association and the National Bar Association. He served as a
Commissioner on the Orleans Levee District, on the Board of Governors of the
National Bar Association and as Chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the
National Bar Association. He also served on the Board of Directors and as
President of The Greater New Orleans Multi-Cultural Tourism Network, The
Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and The Westbank Track Club. Currently,
he is on the Visiting Committee of the Loyola University School of Law and
serves on the boards of the National Conference for Community and Justice, the
Kingsley House and is President of the Board of Trustees of the Algiers
Charter School Association. He is also member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
He received the Loyola University School of Law Distinguished Moot Court
Alumni Award in 2004. New Orleans City Business magazine also recognized Rice
as a member of the Power Generation in 2003 and as a “Leader in Law” in 2008.
Rice currently lives in New Orleans with his wife, Vonda, and two sons, Jordan
and Charles III.
Updated 06/10
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