Chris Bakken recently retired from Entergy as executive vice president of Entergy Infrastructure, where he had oversight of Entergy’s power generation, transmission and distribution operations and major projects. 

Bakken was engaged in building and strengthening relationships with external stakeholders. Two focus areas for Bakken were the diversity, inclusion and belonging of team members across the company and working with the region’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

Immediately prior to Entergy, Bakken served as executive director of nuclear new build projects and Hinkley Point C project director for EDF Energy in London. He was responsible for leading the design, licensing, procurement, construction and commissioning of the dual unit European pressurized reactor at Hinkley Point C, the first new-build project in the United Kingdom in 20 years. 

He previously held senior nuclear leadership positions at Public Service Enterprise Group, American Electric Power, British Energy and EDF Energy. 

Bakken began his 41-year nuclear career in 1982 as a test engineer at Duquesne Light Company, where he spent nine years in the control room as a licensed senior reactor operator. He earned a senior reactor operator’s license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1986 for Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1. 

He has a master’s degree in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Grove City College. In 2021, he was awarded the Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award by Grove City College. He is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in the UK. He is a liveryman in The Worshipful Company of Engineers in London.