Duke Energy’s Lynn Good Named CEO

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) announced Tuesday that its board elected Lynn Good to succeed Jim Rogers as president and chief executive, effective July 1.

Rogers will continue to serve as chairman until his retirement at the end of this year, the company said.

Good worked for 20 years in senior management roles and as a partner for Deloitte & Touche and Arthur Andersen, before joining Cinergy, a predecessor company of Duke Energy, in 2003.

She has served as Duke Energy’s executive vice president and chief financial officer since July 2009. Prior to that, Good was group executive and president of Duke Energy’s Commercial Businesses organization.

“Lynn’s leadership abilities and strategic vision for Duke Energy's continued growth make her the ideal choice,” lead director Ann Maynard Gray, who led the board’s special committee to find a CEO, said in a statement.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company also said its board will name one of its independent directors as the next chairman in the coming weeks. The new chairman will step into the role on Jan. 1.

Following Duke’s $26 billion acquisition of Progress Energy last year, a Duke-dominated board removed Bill Johnson as chief executive. Johnson, who served as CEO at Progress since October 2007, was expected to take the helm of the combined company.

In November, Duke Energy settled with North Carolina regulators over the boardroom shakeup. As part of the settlement, Rogers agreed to retire at the end of 2013.

Duke Energy, which controls utilities for seven million customers in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and the Carolinas, reported last month a surge in first-quarter earnings after the addition of Progress Energy. Its profit was $634 million, or 89 cents a share, versus $295 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Duke shares were up about 1% Tuesday afternoon.