Entergy Corporation announced that David Ellis has been appointed chief customer officer for the company. He will report to Rod West, Entergy’s group president for utility operations, and will assume his new role effective May 9, 2021.
As Entergy’s first-ever chief customer officer, Ellis will lead the company’s strategic efforts aimed at delivering extraordinary customer experiences while also bringing to market innovative solutions to keep pace with evolving customer needs and expectations.
“Whether we’re powering a single-family home, small business, school, or large industrial complex, our customers expect us to understand their aspirations and the outcomes that matter to them,” said West. “In this new role, David will help us partner with our customers at every touchpoint to enable us to meet their reliability, affordability and sustainability goals and to develop solutions that create sustainable value,” continued West. “That’s what customers expect from the premier utility. We are excited about David leading this important effort across all of our operating companies.”
Ellis has served as president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans, LLC, an electric and gas utility subsidiary of Entergy Corporation that serves 207,000 electric and 108,000 natural gas customers and has annual revenues of $634 million, since 2018. Under his leadership, Ellis oversaw the successful startup of the 128-megawatt New Orleans Power Station and secured the regulatory approval and initiated the construction of several renewable energy projects that will benefit the residents of New Orleans. Ellis drove the expansion of several technology and policy-based outcomes intended to improve reliability, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage energy consumption and improve resilience from storm impacts.
He has worked for nearly three decades in the energy industry in varying leadership roles in areas such as customer solutions, technology, energy management and reliability. Prior to joining Entergy, Ellis served as president and CEO of New Jersey-based Global Power Technologies where he led three United States-based companies offering global power quality and reliability solutions. Prior to that, he led demand-response company Comverge’s global expansion working directly with governmental, regulatory and utility interests around the world.
In addition to his role at Comverge, he also was president of wholly owned subsidiary Clean Power Markets, a U.S.-headquartered company administering renewable portfolio standards in U.S. compliance markets offering cloud-based software solutions to commercial and industrial consumers.
Ellis holds an MBA from Eastern University and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering technology from Penn State University. He has completed certificate-based coursework at Drexel University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
