Entergy Chief Nuclear Officer Chris Bakken has announced that Larry Coyle, Indian Point Energy Center site vice president, has been named chief operating officer to work alongside chief operations officers Donna Jacobs and John Ventosa. This team of leaders will be responsible for the strategic direction, support and oversight of Entergy's national fleet of 11 reactors in nine locations.
In other facility moves, Tony Vitale, currently site vice president for Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, was named site vice president for Indian Point Energy Center in New York, and Charlie Arnone, interim vice president of operations support, was named site vice president for Palisades. Coyle, Vitale and Arnone begin their new roles in August.
"We recognize that we face significant challenges at our sites, across the fleet and industry," Bakken said in a statement. "These organizational changes are a part of our nuclear sustainability plan aimed at improving fleet performance."
Coyle joined Entergy in 2011 as general manager of plant operations at Indian Point. In 2013, he was named site vice president at FitzPatrick, and has led the team at Indian Point for the last 18 months. He has more than 33 years of commercial nuclear power experience.
He began his nuclear career with Exelon at Dresden Nuclear Power Station and held various positions increasing in responsibility including main control room supervisor, shift manager, mechanical maintenance manager and work management director. During his tenure at Dresden, he served as an operations peer evaluator for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.
Following his work at Dresden, Coyle served as operations director at LaSalle Nuclear Power Station. He then accepted the maintenance director position for Braidwood Nuclear Power Station, and was subsequently promoted to plant manager.
Vitale began his career as maintenance engineer at Indian Point. Throughout his 33 year nuclear career, Vitale has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility, including various maintenance, engineering and operations supervisory and management roles before becoming general manager plant operations in 2007. In 2011, he accepted the leadership role at Palisades.
Arnone began his nuclear career 31 years ago after eight years in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power program. He has extensive operations experience as a licensed reactor operator and senior reactor operator.
Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11.5 billion and more than 13,000 employees.