Below the Line With Tim Pearson, President of Duke Energy’s SC Utility Operations

Welcome to Below the Line, a monthly question-and-answer column in which Chancellor Bennie L. Harris, Ph.D., of the University of South Carolina Upstate interviews a leader about change, technology, education, and leadership. This month, Dr. Harris spoke with Tim Pearson, president of Duke Energy's utility operations in South Carolina. (This article has been edited for content, clarity, and length.)

Harris: Let’s start at the beginning. Can you tell me a bit about your upbringing?

Pearson: I was actually born in Sydney, Australia. My father is Australian, and my mom is from Philadelphia. My parents met at business school at the University of Virginia, then moved back, and I was born there. When I was about 8 years old, he got transferred back to the U.S. and I grew up in Connecticut. 

I'm very lucky. I have great parents, had a great upbringing. I think my mom taught me a lot of lessons about life as good mothers do. But she was always very impressive to me. University of Virginia is a great business school. She was one of the, I think, second or third classes of women to go through there. And so she was always kind of pushing boundaries. Watching her, she taught me a lot about not shying away from challenges, about hard work, about commitment. And I still think about those lessons that she taught me all the time.

Harris: You began your career in federal public affairs, and later served as chief of staff to Governor Nikki Haley and adviser to multiple governors before joining Duke Energy. Which early experience most shaped your leadership style and how?

Pearson: When I was chief of staff to Governor Haley, I was pretty young for the job. I think I was, at that point, 28 years old. There’s no job like it. Every day is so different. 

You have to treat this job almost as if you are a triage nurse. Almost everything that gets to your desk seems like the most important thing to whomever is bringing it to you. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's the most important thing overall. That taught me how to think about prioritization. What is mission critical? What's something that everyone needs to be focused on in solving this challenge or getting over this hump? And what can kind of wait a little bit longer and can go on the back burner until we all have time to get there? 

Harris: I think that thinking serves you well when running an agency like Duke Energy, that deals with so many crises. 

Pearson: I'm very lucky at Duke. I have such a capable team. And I have every confidence that they can handle it. Letting them do that is important. 

Harris: So let's talk about that. What motivated you to transition from decades in government and policy to a leadership role in the energy sector with Duke Energy?

Pearson: First and foremost, family was the driving force behind it. The idea was that I was going to step outside of the political world. I had traveled a lot in 2022 before I joined Duke. I just wasn't home. And so I didn't really want to do that again. 

I'd worked with Duke as a consultant for a number of years. So I knew a lot of the people and I knew that it was the kind of place where I would want to work. The mission and the purpose that folks here have every day is something I found attractive. 

One thing I liked about politics was that on campaigns there was a common mission, a common goal. The mantra at Duke, about doing best by our customers, drives everybody. 

It’s a really exciting time to be in the electric industry. It's changing probably more than it ever has. 

Harris: Who are the leaders or mentors early in your career who influenced your leadership approach? And what lessons from them do you still use today?

Pearson: I've had the good fortune of being around a lot of good bosses and some lesser bosses. I think you learn a lot from both. 

I worked on Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign back in 2007. And I was pretty young then. The campaign manager at that time was a guy named Mike DuHaime. What always struck me about Mike was how accessible he was. I try to be accessible to people. It’s important as a leader that folks see you and hear from you and that they know they can come to you and that you're not your title. 

Harris: Can you share a personal leadership challenge, maybe from the campaign work or government service, that taught you an important lesson about leading through uncertainty?

Pearson: The toughest time that I ever had — and it's still to this day in any job — was when I was working for Governor Haley and there were the (shooting deaths of nine Black worshippers by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston). I will never forget that. I flew down with Governor Haley to Charleston the next morning. 

It was obviously a very intense and horrifying and draining period of time. And I remember getting back to the governor's office on that Friday. Only three or four of us had been down in Charleston and everyone else was back at the office. They were just kind of in shock. 

I recall spending time with them because, even though we all just wanted to go home, they needed to know what we’d seen and talk about it. We knew it was easy in times of crisis to get very caught up in what is right in front of you. But I think it's really important to remember that there are a lot of people involved in that too. And just because they may not be involved in every single conversation doesn't mean they don't care about everything that's going on. Communicating and bringing people into what's going on in times of challenge is really important.

Harris: So let's talk more about Duke Energy. How do you define your vision for Duke Energy's role in shaping South Carolina's energy future, especially in a state that's trying to balance reliability, affordability, and sustainability? How do you see Duke Energy playing into all of that, your vision for that?

Pearson: Affordability and reliability — that's the balance, right? My vision for South Carolina’s energy future is that we serve our customers well and provide them value and they feel that. 

A lot of times people don't focus on electricity until it's not there. Think about it this way: when I'm watching Amazon Prime with my wife and the ads are on and it's bothering us, I can pay $5 extra a month and those ads go away. There’s tangible benefit. 

When people pay their electric bills, the lights aren’t brighter. They’re not more “on.” 

So we focus on investing in the right assets that will last for a long time. We are constantly thinking of ways to provide information to our customers in a way that helps them understand why things are happening, what it means for them, and what are the things we're doing to try to put downward pressure on their rates. 

Harris: So what core leadership philosophies guide you in navigating change in a highly regulated, highly politically sensitive utility industry? What are the core leadership philosophies that guide you?

Pearson: I think anytime you're dealing with change, you have to be very definitive about what your goals are, what your values are, and then you have to be committed to them. It goes back to what I was talking about a little bit before about not getting distracted by the noise. It's the same idea, although changing political realities, changing regulating bodies, and the laws that govern them are a lot more than noise. But to me, as long as you stay true to what you're trying to accomplish, you can figure out how to navigate new paradigms. You may have to change the way you get there. You don't have to change what you're really trying to do.

We want to provide the most reliable, affordable power that we can. We never want anyone to flip that light switch and have it not go on. And we don't want to burden them with costs that are unnecessary. If we stay true to that, there are ways — whatever the regulatory structure is, whatever the political environment is — that we can achieve those goals. And so as long as you're true to that, you can navigate almost anything.

Harris: What leadership strategies do you employ to foster innovation across Duke Energy's operations, particularly around grid modernization and new energy technology?

Pearson: I think something that's important to me — and this may sound a little strange because we're talking about a regulated utility that operates nuclear plants — is that you have to foster a culture where appropriate risk-taking is not just OK, but encouraged.

I want to be careful to make sure folks understand what I mean. We should not be taking risks at our nuclear plants. There are certain places where we should not be taking risks with anybody's safety, our teammates, or anyone in the public. So there are places where risk is non-negotiable.

But what I mean is that new ideas are good, and some of them don't always work out, but that should be encouraged. We should create a culture where challenging assumptions is rewarded, and thinking outside the box is something we encourage. People should feel comfortable taking risks. It's a risk to come up with a new idea. It's a risk to push back on your supervisor. There are times where that's appropriate.

Harris: Severe weather events like Hurricane Helene deeply impacted Duke Energy's service area. How have these experiences influenced your approach to resilience, leadership, and crisis preparedness?

Pearson: You can't successfully get through events like that if you're not appropriately prepared. I'm blessed to work with some incredible people, and the level of preparedness we have for those kinds of incidents is mind-boggling. 

For me, I've learned I can't control everything. You have to trust the people you work with. I'm fortunate that the people I work with are deserving of that trust.

You have to set the tone for what you're trying to accomplish and then let people work without interference. You prioritize safety and, beyond that, you let people do their job. If you start meddling too much, you're only going to slow things down. 

Harris: Community engagement is a big part of your portfolio. How does your leadership philosophy shape Duke Energy's approach to earning public trust and fostering meaningful engagement?

Pearson: What Duke does very well is not just showing up once a year at an annual Chamber banquet. We live in these communities. They're our homes. We raise our families here. Our kids go to school here.

First and foremost, we're part of these communities. That’s critical. We're not just showing up and engaging when we need something.

Harris: So as you think about those responses, how do you as the leader communicate that and model that for all levels of the organization so employees know community engagement is critically important to who you are as an organization?

Pearson: At Duke, the focus is consistently on our customers. Because of the way we're structured, everyone in our communities is also our customer.

When we have big corporate events, we start with a customer moment. Someone comes up and tells a story about how they interacted with a customer and made a difference. That happens from our largest quarterly meetings all the way down the line.

That’s important because it sets the tone that the customer is why we are here. The customer in that community is why we are here. When that tone is set at the top, it trickles down naturally.

Harris: I’d next like to talk about Leading Below the Line. What I mean by that is that oftentimes we don’t know what’s going on beneath the surface — for leaders and for their teams — and we have to dive in and find out exactly what’s at play in order to make a project or a plan successful. 

Pearson: I feel like almost all leadership is below the line. There’s very little that we see at the top that didn’t have a great deal of work behind it. The visible outcome is a small component. The rest is like an iceberg.

A good leader spends most of their time below the line. That’s where everything happens. If you don’t invest your time there, if you don’t have the right people, and if you don’t empower them and reinforce your core vision and values, you won’t achieve the results you want.

Leadership is about showing up where the work happens, at the right time and in the right ways. Most of that happens below the line.