EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
John Hudson (Co-Chair)
Entergy, Chief External Affairs Officer
John Hudson is senior vice president of external affairs for Entergy and president of the Entergy Charitable Foundation. In this executive leadership role, he is responsible for federal policy, regulatory and government affairs, social responsibility, sustainability and environmental policy, corporate affairs and communications, and utility strategy and regulatory initiatives.
He also oversees the company’s efforts to pursue all available supplemental funding sources, including state and federal grants and loans, to support the company’s infrastructure and resilience improvement efforts. As part of this work, his team collaborates closely with local and regional stakeholders to ensure funded projects align with community needs.
Hudson previously served as president and chief executive officer of Nicor Gas Corporation, Illinois’ largest gas distribution company with more than 2.2 million customers. Previously, Hudson was executive vice president and chief external affairs officer at Southern Company Gas, where he was responsible for the company’s external affairs, customer operations, environmental affairs, corporate communications, and marketing efforts. He serves on the boards of directors for A.G. Gaston Enterprises, Bronze Valley Corporation, Propel Center and Trillion Communications. He also serves on the advisory board for Posse New Orleans.
Hudson earned his Juris Doctor from Miles College School of Law, an MBA from the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Alabama A&M University. He also completed the executive accounting and finance program at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and the Young American Leaders Program at Harvard Business School.
Jeff Peoples (Co-Chair)
Alabama Power, President & CEO
Jeff Peoples is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Alabama Power Company, which provides electricity to more than 1.5 million customers across the state.
With more than 40 years of experience, Peoples began his career as a chemical technician at Alabama Power’s Plant Miller and has held many leadership positions within Southern Company and its subsidiaries, including executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Southern Company Gas and senior vice president of Operations Services for Southern Company Services.
Most recently, Peoples was executive vice president of Customer and Employee Services at Alabama Power, where he oversaw customer services, marketing and economic development strategy and operations, as well as the company’s six geographic business divisions. In addition, he was responsible for Alabama Power’s labor relations, human resources, safety, wellness, health and disability management functions. Peoples is recognized as a national leader in labor relations and workforce development. He is chairman of the board of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. He serves on numerous industry and nonprofit boards, including the Alabama Power Foundation, Business Council of Alabama, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training and TradesFutures. In addition, he was appointed by the governor to both the Alabama Growth Alliance and Alabama Workforce Board Executive Committee, where he serves as chairman.
A native of Alabama, Peoples earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biological science from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He and his wife, Rhoda, have two daughters.
Phillip May is president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana, an electric utility that serves more than 1.1 million customers in 58 Louisiana parishes. He is responsible for the company’s safe and reliable service, financial performance, customer service, regulatory and public affairs, resource planning, economic development programs and charitable contributions.
May is actively engaged in capturing Louisiana’s unprecedented economic growth opportunities. To achieve this, he strategically aligned the company to meet evolving customer expectations by transforming the grid for greater resilience, reliability and sustainability. This includes Louisiana’s first ever $1.9 billion comprehensive grid resilience plan along with the modernization of the generation fleet to meet our customers’ demand for low-carbon and carbon-free energy.
He led the successful effort to combine the Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana operating companies to form a single, stronger utility to serve Louisiana’s customers. In addition, he is implementing Entergy’s long-term strategy to modernize its power generation fleet while helping meet Louisiana’s future energy needs. Under his leadership, Entergy Louisiana has replaced approximately half of its older, less efficient generation capacity with cleaner more modern units since 2004. The company has also overseen the construction and commercial operation of approximately 3,000 megawatts of modern, efficient generation units, including Nine Mile Unit 6 – Louisiana’s first new power plant in nearly 30 years, along with adding solar and renewable resources.
In 2024, May played a key role in Entergy Louisiana’s partnership with Meta to support the development of a major data center in Richland Parish. This project, which involves a significant investment in infrastructure, will provide reliable, clean energy to power Meta’s growing operations in the region. May’s leadership in facilitating this collaboration underscores his commitment to driving sustainable energy solutions while fostering continued economic growth in Louisiana. May also helped bring to Louisiana a nearly $6 billion Hyundai Steel plant and CF Industries’ approximately $4 billion, world’s largest low-carbon ammonia facility in early 2025.
Phillip May
Entergy Louisiana, President & CEO
tility that serves approximately 524,000 customers in 27 counties. He is responsible for the company’s safe and reliable service, financial performance, customer service, regulatory and public affairs, resource planning, economic development programs, and charitable contributions.
Before assuming his current role in November 2021, Viamontes served as vice president, utility distribution operations for Entergy Corporation, where he was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the electric distribution infrastructure for all of Entergy’s state jurisdictions. Viamontes has 21 years of experience leading and working in customer-centric initiatives, including designing reliability programs, utilizing data analytics and driving operational improvements.
Prior to joining Entergy in 2020, Viamontes served as senior director of labor relations and corporate safety at Florida Power & Light Company, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc., where he spent the entirety of his career prior to arriving at Entergy. His previous roles included a wide array of experiences from across the utility business, including various leadership positions in the areas of electric distribution operations, key account management, engineering and construction, vegetation management, incident command and emergency management, reliability, quality/process management and human resources.
Viamontes earned an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida International University in Miami. He completed an executive leadership course from the University of Virginia, is a registered professional engineer and a certified six sigma black belt.
He serves on the board for the Texas Association of Business, the United Way of Greater Houston and the CEO Leaders Advisory Council for Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands. He is also a member of the Texas Private Sector Advisory Council, a position appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Eliecer Viamontes
Entergy Texas, President & CEO
William “Bill” A. Newsom, Jr. was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi Power Americas on December 1, 2021. He leads two global businesses headquartered in the United States and three regional businesses in North, Central, and South America. Mitsubishi Power Americas, headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida, employs more than 2,700 power generation, energy storage, and digital solutions experts and professionals. The company’s employees are focused on empowering customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change while also advancing human prosperity throughout North, Central, and South America.
Mitsubishi Power’s power generation solutions include gas, steam, and aero-derivative turbines; power trains and power islands; geothermal systems; PV solar project development; environmental controls; and services. Energy storage solutions include hydrogen energy storage, battery energy storage systems, and services. Mitsubishi Power also offers intelligent solutions that use artificial intelligence to enable autonomous operation of power plants. Mr. Newsom has been with Mitsubishi Power since 2004 and has extensive leadership and wide-ranging experience across the core gas turbine combined cycle business and new growth segments such as renewable fuels. He began his career at Mitsubishi Power with the power generation service team, holding various leadership roles, from service sales manager to director of service sales and transactional sales. During his tenure Mr. Newsom has been instrumental in reaching number one market share for advanced class gas turbines in the Americas and for launching new growth initiatives, including hydrogen infrastructure, that now define the path to the company’s decarbonization strategy. Mr. Newsom is well known for his customer focus and ability to build partnerships, which are key to executing Mitsubishi Power Americas' long-term strategy and driving the organization toward a decarbonized future.
Prior to joining Mitsubishi Power, Mr. Newsom held several leadership positions at Westinghouse, Siemens, and Calpine. Mr. Newsom holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from the University of Florida, and he completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Bill Newsom
Mitsubishi Power Americas, President & CEO
Mr. Mody is President of the Natural Gas Pipelines Group for Kinder Morgan, Inc., one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America.
Mr. Mody is responsible for all commercial and operational activities of the Kinder Morgan Natural Gas Pipelines Group, which encompasses approximately 70,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, plus storage, treating and processing facilities. Kinder Morgan transports about 40 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States.
Mr. Mody joined KMI as part of the El Paso acquisition and has previously served as president of the Midstream Group. He has 24 years of experience in the energy sector and holds an MBA from the University of Houston and a BBA in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sital Mody
Kinder Morgan, President, Natural Gas Pipelines