Jackson, Miss. – A number of organizational changes have been announced that position Entergy Nuclear for the future.

"Due to our strong emphasis on hiring well and workforce planning, we have tremendous bench strength that enables us to respond to retirements in key positions with very talented individuals," said John Herron, president, CEO and chief nuclear officer of Entergy Nuclear. "As a result, I am confident that our nuclear leadership team will be well positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead."

Mike Perito, site vice president at Grand Gulf, has been named senior vice president, chief operating officer, with responsibility for FitzPatrick, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee, effective Feb, 4, 2013. He will begin a transition at the first of the year with Kevin Bronson, who is retiring Feb. 28, 2013.

Perito joined Entergy in 2008 as site vice president of River Bend and moved to his current role at Grand Gulf in 2011. Prior to Entergy, Perito was general manager at Palo Verde, a three-unit station operated by Arizona Public Service, and operations manager at Exelon’s Quad Cities. Earlier in his career, Perito served as assistant operations manager at Pilgrim.

Bronson is retiring after a 32-year commercial nuclear career that began at Vermont Yankee where he moved up the ranks in Operations to become general manager. He was named to his current position in November 2011 after having served as site vice president at FitzPatrick and at Pilgrim.

Succeeding Perito at Grand Gulf will be Kevin Mulligan, who has been in his current role of vice president, Operations Support at Echelon since 2011. Mulligan will begin his transition with Perito immediately and assume his new role Dec. 14, 2012. Mulligan joined Entergy in 2001 as maintenance manager at Pilgrim and later became general manager at FitzPatrick. Prior to joining Entergy, Mulligan worked at GPU Utilities Corporation’s Oyster Creek as plant manager, training manager and plant operations director.

Bill Maguire, who returned to Entergy from Exelon on Sept. 30, 2012, has completed turnover with Mulligan and assumed the role of vice president, Operations Support at Echelon on Nov. 5. Maguire joined Entergy in 2001 as maintenance manager at FitzPatrick, where he later served as nuclear safety assurance director. He served as general manager of Vermont Yankee from 2004 until he joined Exelon in 2008. While at Exelon, Maguire was vice president of the company’s mid-Atlantic operations, site vice president of Peach Bottom and Limerick and vice president of Exelon Generation.

Jeremy Browning, Grand Gulf general manager, has been named site vice president of Arkansas Nuclear One, effective Jan. 11, 2013. In the interim, he will transition with Chris Schwarz, who is retiring Feb. 1, 2013.

Browning came to Grand Gulf in 2008 after an 18-year commercial nuclear career at Arkansas Nuclear One. Working his way up from auxiliary operator, Browning served in various leadership roles at ANO including shift manager, outage manager, operations manager and maintenance manager.

Chris Schwarz was named site vice president of Arkansas Nuclear One in December 2010. Before coming to ANO, he served as site vice president of Palisades, vice president of operations support for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, and general manager of Indian Point. Before joining Entergy, he worked at Millstone Station as operations director and at Peach Bottom as a shift manager.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation’s leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.