Rick Smith has a long, distinguished career in the energy industry. He joined Entergy in September 1999 as Senior Vice President, Transition Management and, in April 2007, was named to his current position of Entergy Corporation’s President and Chief Operating Officer. In this position he oversees Entergy Nuclear and Entergy Operations, which includes fossil plant operations, transmission operations, system environmental and safety, system planning, compliance and performance management.

Previously, Smith was Group President of Entergy’s Utility Operations. He was responsible for the regulated utility financial results, along with operation results of electric and natural gas distribution and customer service. In addition, Smith oversaw utility regulatory support and regulated retail activities.

Before joining Entergy, he held several executive positions at Cinergy Corp., a multi-state electric utility company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, including President of Cinergy Resources, Inc., Cinergy’s non-regulated retail supply business, and Vice President for Energy Services with responsibilities for all customer-service functions including field offices, call centers, meter reading, billing, credit, and collections.

Smith has a B.S. degree in accounting from Indiana University and Purdue University of Indianapolis and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Indianapolis.