Speakers
J. Wayne Leonard
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Entergy Corporation
Wayne Leonard is chairman and CEO of Entergy. Under Leonard's leadership, Entergy achieved the highest total shareholder return in the industry over the nine-year period ending December 31, 2007. Forbes included Entergy on the List of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies in 2007, the only electric utility named to this list. Entergy was also named to the exclusive Dow Jones Sustainability World Index in 2007, the sixth consecutive year the company has been so honored and the only U.S. utility listed. Entergy received Platts/Business Week Global Energy Awards as the Power Company of the Year in 2002 and the Energy Company of the Year in 2003. Platts/Business Week also named Leonard the 2003 CEO of the Year, and Leonard has been a CEO of the Year finalist for the past seven consecutive years. In 2002 and again in 2005, Entergy received Edison Electric Institute’s prestigious Edison Award -- the electric industry's highest honor.
In recognizing his commitment to low-income energy issues, the National Fuel Funds Network awarded Leonard the 2002 Sister Pat Kelley Award for Achievement, recognizing his individual leadership and personal commitment to advancing, increasing and promoting low-income energy issues. In addition, in 1999, Leonard was asked by President Clinton to lead a new Mississippi River Delta business-to-business mentoring effort called BusinessLINC. In 2000, Leonard was awarded the Foundation for the Mid-South Corporate Leadership Award for excellence in corporate giving and leadership in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In October 2005, Leonard was named to Family Service of Greater New Orleans list of Ten Outstanding Persons.
Leonard received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from his alma mater Ball State University in 2004, and was inducted into the University’s Hall of Fame in 2002. Georgetown University also named him the 2003 Business Leader of the Year. Leonard is a past chairman of the New Orleans United Way Board of Trustees and is also a member of the Board of Directors of Tidewater, Inc., the Committee for a Better New Orleans, the Business Council of New Orleans, and the Edison Electric Institute.
Leonard began his career at PSI Energy, where he later served as the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer from 1989 to 1994. Upon PSI’s merger into Cinergy, he served as chief financial officer before taking on the additional responsibility as president of Cinergy's Energy Commodities Strategic Business Unit and president of Cinergy Capital and Trading. Leonard joined Entergy in 1998 as president and chief operating officer of the company's domestic business, and he assumed additional responsibility for international operations in August 1998 before being named chief executive officer later in the year. Leonard earned his bachelor's degree in accounting in 1973 from Ball State University and received an MBA in 1987 from Indiana University.