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Michele O’Connell

President and CEO, Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc.

Michele O’Connell is president and CEO of Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc. an electric and gas utility that’s leading the energy industry transformation. Orange & Rockland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., operating energy utility companies in New York and New Jersey, and providing smarter and cleaner energy solutions for the nearly 1 million people in the territory.

Most recently, Ms. O’Connell served as senior vice president of Customer Operations at Con Edison. She oversaw many aspects of the customer experience, including customer outreach and education, call center operations, billing, meter reading, field collections, special services for large customers, retail choice, and field investigations related to customer inquiries. Additionally, Ms. O’Connell played a crucial role in the oversight and implementation of the new billing system.

Previously, Ms. O’Connell was vice president for Staten Island and Electric Services, Electric Operations. She was responsible for the safe, reliable, and economic operation of the electric distribution system serving Staten Island. She served on the board of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation during her time in this position.

Ms. O’Connell joined Con Edison in 2003 as an associate engineer in System and Transmission Operations, analyzing merchant generation and transmission project interconnections. Throughout her career, she has held positions of varying responsibilities, such as leading teams that executed capital construction projects within the substations of Brooklyn and Queens; optimized and directed the project management of capital and maintenance projects for all the substations in Con Edison’s service territory and managed the safe and reliable operations and maintenance of the substations located in the Bronx and Westchester County.

Ms. O’Connell currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation (HVEDC), the Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress and the New Jersey Utilities Association (NJUA). She serves as 1st Vice Chair of the NJUA Executive Committee. She is a member of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Operating Company Leadership Group, New Jersey Energy Coalition Advisory Board, Partnership for NYC Urban Resiliency Advisory Board and Women’s Forum of New York.

Ms. O’Connell is a former David Rockefeller Fellow and was an executive committee member at both the AEIC (Association of Edison Illuminating Companies) and EEI. She also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Building Congress.

She is a graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and earned a Master of Business Administration in finance from Montclair State University.

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