Bob Pierce presently serves as Manager, Initiative Management in Duke Energy’s Transmission Planning and Operations Strategy group. He joined Duke Energy in 1979 and has held several engineering and management positions in Nuclear Generation, Transmission Planning and Transmission Planning and Operations Strategy. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nuclear Engineering, obtained a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from University of North Carolina Charlotte, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of North Carolina. Throughout his career, he has participated in and led a number of industry committees and working groups, including the NERC Multi-Regional Modeling Working Group (chair and participant), standard drafting committees for NERC standards TPL-001-4 and FAC-013 (chair), various SERC working groups and committees, multiple committees of the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative, and the Southeastern Regional Transmission Planning Process.