Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe

Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe serves as executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary for Duke Energy. He is the primary legal advisor to Duke Energy’s board of directors and senior management, and leads the Office of the General Counsel, which includes the company’s legal, corporate governance, internal audit, and ethics and compliance functions. Additionally, he is responsible for the human resources function.

Prior to being named chief legal officer in October 2019 and corporate secretary in May 2020, Ghartey-Tagoe served as president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in South Carolina, which serves approximately 800,000 electric retail customers and 157,000 natural gas customers. He was responsible for the financial performance of Duke Energy’s regulated electric utilities in South Carolina and managing state and local regulatory and government relations, and community affairs. He also had responsibility for advancing the company’s legislative and regulatory initiatives related to its electric operations. 

Joining the company in 2002 as chief regulatory counsel for Duke Power, Ghartey-Tagoe has held numerous leadership positions in the legal department covering several areas of legal services to Duke Energy. He served as Duke Energy’s senior vice president of state and federal regulatory legal support; general counsel for litigation; and vice president, legal, for Duke Energy’s Commercial Businesses organization. He also served as vice president, legal-state regulation for Duke Energy’s franchised electric and gas business. Before joining the company, Ghartey-Tagoe was a partner with McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond, Va. 

Ghartey-Tagoe serves on the board of directors of Energy Insurance Mutual, Ltd. He is also a member of the President’s Advisory Board of Clemson University and the board of TreesCharlotte. In 2000, Ghartey-Tagoe was appointed by Gov. Gilmore of Virginia to serve on the board of visitors of Virginia State University, one of the nation’s most venerated historically Black institutions of higher learning. He served on that board for three years.

Ghartey-Tagoe was named one of Savoy Magazine’s 2024 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America. He also received the Diversity Champion Award from the Charlotte Business Journal, and an Award of Excellence for his outstanding achievements in the legal profession and his dedication to diversity in the workplace from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in 2013.

A native of Ghana, Ghartey-Tagoe earned a Juris Doctor from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts degree, with joint honors in economics and finance, from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He also completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of Business. In 2017, Ghartey-Tagoe was conferred an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by Francis Marion University. Ghartey-Tagoe and his wife, Phyllis, have three daughters.

Last updated July 1, 2024

Duke Energy

Duke Energy, one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States, supplies and delivers electric services to approximately 8.4 million customers in the Southeast and Midwest. The company also distributes natural gas services to approximately 1.7 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK.