Richard Donaldson

Richard Donaldson serves as vice president and chief information officer for Duke Energy. He is responsible for the company’s digital strategy, including technology initiatives, reliability, vulnerability and life cycle management, as well as oversight of infrastructure operations and telecom. His current focus is on leveraging digital capabilities and artificial intelligence to transform the company’s internal operations, modernize customer experiences and help the company achieve its energy transition goals. 

Donaldson joined Duke Energy in 2001 as an engineer in enterprise applications. He took on progressively expanding roles, including leading application infrastructure/architecture for the corporate applications domain until 2010, when he joined the telecom organization. While in telecom, Donaldson had responsibility for the company’s wireless communications systems, including land and plant mobile radio systems used by Duke Energy's operations fleet. In 2013, Donaldson joined the Program Management Office (PMO), where he was named division manager in 2014. After leading the PMO through the Progress Energy merger integration projects, Donaldson assumed the role of leading the digital transformation function. 

Before joining Duke Energy in 2001, Donaldson spent four years practicing civil and environmental engineering at a consulting firm in Charlotte. He earned a Master of Science in environmental engineering and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina. 

Donaldson currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. He is also an active former board chair of Apparo, a nonprofit in Charlotte that assists local nonprofits with leveraging technology to improve business processes to expand their social change in the community. 

He and his wife, Aimee, along with their three daughters, live in Huntersville, N.C. In his spare time, Donaldson enjoys coaching and cheering on his daughters’ sports teams, hiking and skiing in the Banner Elk/Sugar Mountain area, and visiting Holden Beach.

Feb. 26, 2025

 

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.