Stephen De May is president of Duke Energy's utility operations in North Carolina, which serves approximately 3.7 million electric retail customers and 786,000 natural gas customers. He is responsible for the financial performance of Duke Energy's regulated utilities in North Carolina and managing state and local regulatory and government relations, and community affairs. He also has responsibility for advancing the company's rate and regulatory initiatives.
Before assuming his current position in November 2018, De May served as treasurer and senior vice president of tax for Duke Energy. As treasurer, he was responsible for financing and capital markets activities, liability management, liquidity and cash management, long-term investments and managing Duke Energy's relationships with the major credit rating agencies. As head of tax, he was responsible for federal, state, local and international tax compliance, research, structuring and tax planning, audits and income tax accounting. During his 11 years as treasurer, he also led at different times the corporate risk management and investor relations functions.
De May joined Duke Energy in 1990 as a director of the company's former real estate development business, Crescent Resources, where he had responsibility for managing the finance and accounting functions. In 1994, he joined Duke Energy's corporate finance group and managed that function after the Duke Energy-PanEnergy merger until stepping into the leadership role of the business unit finance group. During this time, De May financed the growth of Duke Energy's many lines of gas and electric businesses across an international footprint that included North and South America, Australia and Europe. During 2004 and 2005, he served as vice president of energy and environmental policy, the company's primary public policy role, where he led position development and advocacy for the leading energy issues of that time. He was named assistant treasurer after the Duke Energy/Cinergy merger in 2006 and treasurer in 2007.
Prior to joining Duke Energy, De May worked in the tax practices of Deloitte & Touche and Price Waterhouse in Raleigh and Charlotte.
De May graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Master of Business Administration from the McColl Graduate School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte. He is a certified public accountant in North Carolina. In 2010, he completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
De May serves as a trustee of the University of North Carolina Asheville and as a director on the boards of the NC Chamber, the National Advisory Board for NCSU’s Institute for Emerging Issues, and the NC FIRST Commission with the N.C. Department of Transportation. A native of Long Island, N.Y., De May and his wife, Linda, have three children.
