B. Keith Trent Group Executive and Chief Development Officer
Keith Trent is group executive and chief development officer for Duke Energy. He leads corporate development, including corporate strategy, and mergers and acquisitions.
Trent has more than 18 years of experience as an accomplished counselor.
He joined Duke Energy in May 2002 as general counsel, litigation. He was responsible for managing all major litigation and government investigations for the enterprise. The labor and employment, and environmental, health and safety legal teams also reported to Trent. He was named group vice president, general counsel and secretary in June 2005. He was named to his current position in April 2006.
Trent previously served as a partner in the law firm Snell, Brannian & Trent, since October 1991. Prior to that, he was an attorney at Jackson Walker in Dallas. He began his career as a reservoir/production engineer with Arco Oil & Gas in Houston in January 1982.
He received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, with honors, from Southern Methodist University and earned a juris doctor degree, with high honors, from the University of Texas College of Law.
Trent is licensed to practice law in various courts in the states of North Carolina and Texas, as well as numerous federal district courts, and the United States Supreme Court. Trent is a member of the Texas State Bar, American Bar Association, Houston Bar Association, North Carolina State Bar and Mecklenburg County Bar. He was appointed a vice chair of the Gas Committee of the Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law Section of the American Bar Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel.
A native of North Little Rock, Ark., Trent was born in 1959. He and his wife, Lucy, have two sons.
Duke Energy is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and an affiliated real estate company. Duke Energy supplies, delivers and processes energy for customers in the Americas. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: http://www.duke-energy.com.
April 3, 2006