Kimberly Cook-Nelson

Executive Vice President, Nuclear Operations and Chief Nuclear Officer

Kimberly Cook-Nelson is executive vice president of nuclear operations and chief nuclear officer of Entergy, where she is responsible for the safe, secure and reliable operations of Entergy's four nuclear power plants and five reactors located in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Entergy Nuclear is headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.

As a member of the company's office of the chief executive, Cook-Nelson is also engaged in building and strengthening relationships with external stakeholders.

Prior to her current role, she served as chief operating officer, nuclear operations from 2021 to 2022 with responsibility for Arkansas Nuclear One, River Bend and Palisades nuclear generating stations. She served as Entergy’s vice president, system planning and operations from 2019 to 2021, where she was responsible for the local balance authority, energy marketing, commercial operations/origination, energy settlements, non-nuclear fuel purchasing and scheduling, long-term capacity planning and more.

In 2016, Cook-Nelson moved to the Entergy Nuclear headquarters office as vice president, operations support, where she was accountable for the line corporate functional area managers, training, performance improvement, organizational effectiveness, and business planning. She previously held various leadership positions of increasing responsibility in system engineering, continuous improvement, maintenance, nuclear safety assurance and operations. She was the general manager of plant operations at Waterford 3 from 2011 to 2014. She also completed a rotational assignment at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, where she qualified and functioned as an organizational effectiveness team leader and a corporate evaluator.

Cook-Nelson began her career in 1996 as a design engineer at the Waterford 3 nuclear plant, later moving to the nuclear safety analysis group where she focused on work in probabilistic risk assessment and risk-informed applications. She moved into plant leadership in 2001 as a mechanical maintenance first-line supervisor, followed by operations, receiving her senior reactor operator license in 2003.

She has an MBA, a master's degree in engineering management and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Orleans. She also attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. She is a licensed professional engineer and received her senior reactor operator license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Waterford 3.

Entergy, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, powers life for 3 million customers through its operating companies across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy is creating a cleaner, more resilient energy future for everyone with our diverse power generation portfolio, including increasingly carbon-free energy sources. With roots in the Gulf South region for more than a century, Entergy is a recognized leader in corporate citizenship, delivering more than $100 million in economic benefits to local communities through philanthropy and advocacy efforts annually over the last several years. Our approximately 12,000 employees are dedicated to powering life today and for future generations.

Updated November 2022