CenterPoint Energy announces senior leadership changes
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) today announced several senior leadership changes which will take effect on January 1, 2025. Those changes include the appointments of Richard C. Leger as Senior Vice President of CenterPoint’s multi-state Gas business and Bertha Villatoro as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Leger has served in the current lead Gas role on an interim basis since July 2024. He will report to President & Chief Executive Officer Jason Wells. Villatoro will report to Executive Vice President and General Counsel Monica Karuturi.
Lynne Harkel-Rumford, who currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer and oversees all HR functions as well as Community Relations, will retire effective February 3, 2024. She will remain with CenterPoint as a senior advisor to Jason Wells until her retirement.
“I want to thank Lynne for her years of unwavering service during her 25-year CenterPoint career. She made real and lasting impacts for our employees, customers and communities. In addition to her contributions to the business, she’s been a passionate community advocate for hunger issues across the Greater Houston region and has worked tirelessly to support the cause,” said Wells. “We will miss Lynne’s guidance and counsel and I extend my very best wishes to her and her family in her well-deserved retirement.”
During her CenterPoint career, Harkel-Rumford has taken on successively larger leadership roles beyond HR. Before retirement, her span of control included Community Relations, Communications & Marketing, Facilities and Corporate Security and Safety.
“Richard and Bertha are two of our gifted executives who help drive our culture of innovation, continuous improvement and accountability,” said Wells. “I want to thank Richard for the determined and thoughtful leadership he’s exhibited while leading the 3,500-person Gas organization on an interim basis and his willingness to take on ever-increasing responsibilities. I also want to thank Bertha for being willing to step-up in this expanded role and take on the full leadership of our HR organization. I look forward to working with both of them for years to come.”
Richard C. Leger
Leger will lead on a permanent basis all areas of the company’s natural gas business that serves approximately 4.2 million customers across a six-state footprint. During his 24-year tenure with CenterPoint and its predecessor companies, Leger has held diverse utility leadership roles of increasing responsibly across the natural gas and electric operations, regulatory affairs, and business process optimization.
He is a board member of the American Gas Association, Southern Gas Association, United Way of Southwestern Indiana and Golf Gives Back. He is also former chair of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance. Leger also served six years in the Louisiana Army National Guard. He earned two bachelor’s degrees in accounting and marketing from McNeese State University.
Bertha Villatoro
Villatoro has nearly 20 years of business and human resources leadership experience across the energy sector. As CenterPoint’s CHRO, she will oversee talent development, compensation and benefits, labor relations, and learning and organizational development.
During her career, she has served numerous roles with increasing responsibility at CenterPoint Energy, Kinder Morgan and El Paso Corporation. In her successively larger leadership roles, she has been responsible for total rewards, talent management and development, employee services, human resources IT systems, and HR compliance.
Villatoro received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in business administration from Rice University. She is a Society for Human Resource Management-Certified Professional (SHRM-CP), a Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP). Bertha is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Target Hunger in Houston.