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Cathy Roche is senior vice president and chief communications officer for Duke Energy. She is responsible for directing and managing the company’s communications with both internal and external audiences, including the media and customers of the company’s franchised electric and gas utilities. She is also responsible for executive communications, corporate publications, advertising, and brand management and strategy.
Roche has more than 25 years of experience in the communications field. She joined Duke Energy in February 2000 as director of external relations in the public affairs department. Her responsibilities included media relations, emergency communications and financial communications. In February 2003, Roche was named vice president of corporate communications. She was named to her current position in December 2006.
Before joining Duke Energy, Roche served as vice president of corporate communications for Entergy Corporation in New Orleans, La., from 1996 to 1999; and vice president of public and industry communications for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, D.C., from 1989 to 1996. She was director of publications for Duke Power from 1983 to 1989, and worked as a self-employed public relations consultant from 1980 to 1983. Before becoming a public relations professional, Roche worked as a reporter for 10 years with The Associated Press and The Charlotte News.
A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Roche graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. Roche serves on the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and the Board of Visitors of the Carolina Environmental Program, also at UNC-CH.
Roche and her husband Terry live in Charlotte, N.C. They have two grown sons.
Duke Energy, one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, supplies and delivers energy to approximately 4 million U.S. customers. The company has approximately 36,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Midwest and the Carolinas, and natural gas distribution services in Ohio and Kentucky. In addition, Duke Energy has more than 4,000 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America, and is a joint-venture partner in a U.S. real estate company. | 