Sharene Pierce

Sharene Pierce is chief diversity and inclusion officer and vice president of talent acquisition for Duke Energy. She is responsible for developing and executing strategies that continue to build on the company’s culture of diversity and inclusion and enhance its ability to execute one of the industry’s largest clean energy transitions. She also leads the cross-functional team responsible for building a strong and diverse recruitment pipeline.

Duke Energy has made strong progress hiring diverse candidates and advancing diverse leaders, and hosting events where employees can have safe and honest conversations. The company also has an increased focus on outreach to historically Black colleges and universities, as well as social justice and racial equity philanthropy.

Before assuming her current position in December 2022, Pierce served as vice president, customer experience and services operational transformation for Duke Energy. In this role, she focused on delivering customer value, employee engagement and diversity and inclusion initiatives within the customer experience, solutions and services organization.

Pierce joined the company in 2000 and has held a series of engineering and operations leadership roles during her career. Her previous roles also include vice president of engineering for the distribution grid in the western Carolinas.

A native of North Carolina, Pierce earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Wake Forest University School of Business. She is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina.

Pierce currently serves on the North Carolina State University Park Scholarship Regional Selection Committee. She is also a member of the Wake Forest University Engineering External Advisory Council and a Project Scientist STEM superstar speaker.

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.