Title
President and Chief Executive Officer
Company
North American Electric Reliability Corporation
Bio
Mr. Cauley oversees NERC’s mission of assuring the reliability of the North American bulk power system. As president and CEO, Mr. Cauley directs key programs affecting more than 1,900 bulk power system owners, operators, and users, including mandatory reliability standards, compliance monitoring, enforcement, situation awareness, event and risk analysis, reliability assessments and forecasting, cyber and physical security, and government relations. Mr. Cauley also oversees the operations of eight Regional Entities who support the reliability mission across North America by implementing delegated responsibilities at the regional and local levels. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Cauley served as president and CEO of the SERC Reliability Corporation, one of the reliability Regions covering 16 states in the southeastern and central United States. During this time, he established new programs for monitoring and enforcing compliance with mandatory standards, developed training and educational programs and a program to track reliability recommendations. Prior to his CEO career, Mr. Cauley served as vice president and director of Standards at NERC and was instrumental in preparing NERC’s application to become the government-certified electric reliability organization. He spearheaded the development of an initial set of mandatory standards to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system in North America. Mr. Cauley was also a lead investigator of the August 2003 Northeast blackout and coordinated the NERC Y2k program, supervising the reporting and readiness of 3,100 electric organizations in the United States and Canada. Over a 35-year career, Mr. Cauley has been driven by a keen interest in serving the public while performing roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of electricity reliability and nuclear safety. He served as the program manager for grid operations and planning at the Electric Power Research Institute. He was a training consultant and established comprehensive reliability and safety training programs at dozens of electric utilities for electric system operations, nuclear and fossil plant operations, substations, and distribution systems. Prior to his career in the power industry, Mr. Cauley served five years as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Cauley earned a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree from the University of Maryland in nuclear engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola College - Baltimore. Mr. Cauley is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Cauley also serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Energy Association.